Oprah to the rescue...again

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HarperCollins posted a gain in profit in the quarter ending March 30, Publishers Weekly reports, and thanks go once again to Oprah Winfrey.

Winfrey’s decision to select the paperback reissue of Sidney Poitier’s 2000 autobiography, “The Measure of a Man,” for her book club is largely credited by HarperCollins execs for the sudden jump in profit after two down quarters. Oprah’s Book Club started in 1996, and some pundits in publishing say it immediately challenged the refrain of industry execs that U.S. readership was dwindling and that fewer people appreciated good books. Winfrey came along and turned such authors as Wally Lamb and Brett Lott into household names; she even persuaded the general public to give Tolstoy and Faulkner a try. One thing you can safely assume: In the near future, Bertelsmann AG, the media corporation that owns Random House, will be celebrating like HarperCollins when Winfrey completes the discussion of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Road,” her club’s most recent selection.

— Nick Owchar