Word: snyder
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Later that day, Snyder was fired...
Until then Snyder, 61, had been one of the most powerful executives in publishing. Aggressive and abrasive, he had run Simon & Schuster since 1975 and increased the firm's revenues from $40 million to $2 billion. He achieved this growth largely by buying educational publishers like Prentice Hall. But those outfits didn't bring Simon & Schuster fame. It was its trade division -- the division that publishes the nonfiction books and novels available in bookstores -- that made waves...
Last week Richard Snyder, the CEO of the huge publishing house Simon & Schuster, and his young, third wife Laura Yorke invited a dozen Manhattan media swells to a dinner party. The guest of honor was to be Snyder's new boss, Sumner Redstone. Redstone's company, Viacom, acquired Simon & Schuster when it bought Paramount Communications, which owned the publisher. But the day before the party, Redstone left a message on Snyder's answering machine, backing...
...Under Snyder, Simon & Schuster became almost as avid as a Hollywood studio in its pursuit of hot properties and star writers. Among the authors it rewarded with big advances were Jackie Collins, Mary Higgins Clark, Kitty Kelley, Bob Woodward, Rush Limbaugh and Ronald Reagan, who was reportedly paid $7 million for his memoirs. For class, Simon & Schuster plucked Philip Roth away from his prestige publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Although only about 10% of Simon & Schuster's revenues come from trade publishing, that is where the glitz lies. Says top literary agent Morton Janklow: "Trade publishing is like couture in fashion...
...Snyder's high-volume, high-profile style produced profits that were just about average for the industry, but his personality created serious turnover problems. An arrow of a man, with a loud, deep voice and a blunt manner, he underscored every bottom line with outbursts of temper. When Martin Davis took over Paramount (then Gulf & Western) 10 years ago, the two dictatorial bosses began a festering, not quite open feud. Snyder is a buccaneer, better suited to being an entrepreneur than an employee. Says Joan Didion: "This is the game he wanted to play; he played it for 30 years...