Unspinning Peter Olson’s End-of-Year Letter

The full text is available here, but let’s do some careful interpretation (read: overdose of snark) of what Random House CEO Peter Olson is really trying to tell his North American employees in this year’s edition of the end-of-year letter:

• The demands of our business and the pressures of the book marketplace these past twelve months have been relentless: We’re losing money faster than ever.
• Thanks to our books and their authors, and to your hard work, your creativity, and your dedication and commitment, Random House has consistently outperformed the marketplace in 2006: We lost less money than everyone else.
• With the superb support of our Sales Group and our Distribution Centers colleagues, all of our publishing divisions can look back on some notable successes: Those who haven’t been fired or “forcibly retired” already.
• Children’s Books, and the Crown and Knopf Groups enjoying an especially excellent fiscal year: They actually turned a profit or broke even. The rest, er, not so much.
• I wish I could tell you that maintaining, if not exceeding, this level of achievement will get easier next year. It won’t: We’ll be bleeding even more cash in 2007.
• Our upcoming publishing frontlists are shaping up excellently but we are going to have to work very hard in this marketplace and competitive environment for every sale to enable us to continue to achieve growth in sales and operating results:We have a lot of lemons in the staple and this is bad for business.
• These realities are invigorating, not daunting, for me and I hope also for you:We lose more money, that means more layoffs.
• Our parent company, Bertelsmann, is more committed than ever to supporting our long-term growth:The private equity offers are already rolling in.
• I look forward to welcoming you back in January and to rolling up our sleeves together to make the coming year our greatest: if not, Jack Reacher‘s gonna have something to say about that.

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