Perseus Books to cut staff, lines

The Perseus Books Group will lay off more than a quarter of its staff and shut down two imprints.

Thursday’s announcement came in the wake of Perseus’ acquisition of the Avalon Publishing Group in March. With a motto of “Insightful, Innovative, Independent,” Perseus runs some of the leading independent presses, including Basic Books, PublicAffairs and Da Capo Press, and has a history of releasing literary and topical works.

“We have spent the past two months analyzing how best to bring the companies together,” Perseus President David Steinberger said. “There are areas of Avalon which we are investing in, like travel, and then there are areas where we think it makes sense to cut back.”

Perseus is letting 24 of its 91 employees go, and Steinberger said that 21 more may leave, depending on discussions about “open positions we have available in the organization.”

Steinberger also announced that the literary Counterpoint Press imprint will be sold and that two other imprints, Carroll & Graf Publishers and Thunder’s Mouth Press, will be closed because “there is a fair amount of overlap between the identities of these imprints” and others at Perseus.