Bridge Publishing Competitors

HarperCollins occupies a unique place in Australian and New Zealand publishing. In both nations, we are the oldest publisher and the most forward thinking in terms of our transition to the global digital world of today. Owned by News Corps, we published ABC Books, Head of Zeus and Harlequin books. Our imprints include Angus & Robertson, Fourth Estate, Harper Voyager and Avon Romance. Today HarperCollins produces print and e-books, generally simultaneously, and was one of the first Australian publishers to turn much of the deep backlist into e-books to broaden the life of a book. Our first app, Donna Hay’s what’s for dinner?, was launched in late 2013. Short-run digital printing and print on demand technology are used to keep books available in print, while the Harper 360 program exports print editions directly into the US and the UK.

The Orion Publishing Group was founded in 1991. Soon after, Orion began negotiations with Lord Weidenfeld, and acquired Weidenfeld & Nicolson as the nucleus of the new publishing group; Lord Weidenfeld remained as chairman of W&N, a post he still occupies. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, founded in 1949, was an established name with a history of quality publishing. Its imprints include Everyman Paperbacks. Orion Books was launched in 1992, and in 1993 Orion bought the assets of Chapman Publishers, a small general publishing house. That year it also acquired a warehousing and distribution centre, Littlehampton Book Services (LBS) based in Sussex. In December 1998, Hachette acquired the publishing house Cassell & Co, whose imprints included Victor Gollancz Ltd, which became part of the Orion Group. Gollancz had been founded in 1928 and had continued as an independent publisher until 1989, when the last family member retired and the business was sold. Out of this acquisition, Orion also took ownership of the Cassell Military list. Also in 1998, a majority of the share capital of the Orion Publishing Group was sold to Hachette Livre, the publishing arm of the French Lagardère Group. In 2003 Hachette Livre became the sole owner of the group. In 2004, Hachette also acquired the Hodder Headline Group, and Hachette UK was formed, with Orion as its largest single component.

Allen & Unwin is an independent Australian publishing company, first established in Australia in 1976 as a subsidiary of the British firm George Allen & Unwin Ltd, which was founded by Sir Stanley Unwin in August 1914 and went on to become one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century. Allen & Unwin Australia Pty Ltd became independent in July 1990 by means of a management buy-out when the UK firm was bought by HarperCollins. Now known simply as "Allen & Unwin" the company went on to become the most successful "independent" in Australia and these days publishes up to 250 new titles a year. We publish across a broad range of areas including literary and commercial fiction, popular and serious non-fiction - including biography, memoir, history, true crime, politics, current affairs and travel - academic and professional, children's books and books for teenagers. Amongst the many authors published by Allen & Unwin are Alex Miller, Christos Tsiolkas, Garth Nix, Jodi Picoult, Kate Morton, Michael Connelly, Thomas Keneally, Peter Corris, Peter Garrett, Paul Keating, Stephanie Dowrick and Christopher Hitchens. As well as publishing our own extensive list of titles, Murdoch Books is now part of Allen & Unwin and we are the Australian and New Zealand agents for a number of other fine publishers. In conjunction with Faber we offer writing courses with the Faber Writing Academy in Sydney and Melbourne.