Kadokawa’s making some major moves today!
Earlier today, Kadokawa Corporation announced that they are entering a joint publishing venture with New York-based publisher Hachette Book Group. Under the partnership, Hachette’s Yen Press imprint will be spun off as an independent entity. Kadokawa will hold a 51% stake in the new organization, which will be named Yen Press, LLC.
Yen Press, LLC. will officially launch this May. The new venture’s mission will be to grow the light novel industry and establish the format as a new genre. Kadokawa will provide leadership, while Hachette provides their distribution and production infrastructure.
Hachette CEO Michael Pietsch commented on the acquisition, stating:
This new partnership with KADOKAWA is an exciting opportunity for HBG — the venture will further strengthen our Yen Press brand, and allow us to leverage KADOKAWA’s superb reputation in both manga and light novel genres, as well as their digital distribution and anime platforms. Combining KADOKAWA’s expertise in these categories, and HBG’s excellent sales, distribution and publishing support services, Yen Press will be well positioned to continue its remarkable growth. And this important new partnership is in extremely able hands, with Kurt Hassler as Publisher – no one is more perfectly suited to lead this new venture than Kurt, who has built the publishing program to where it is today.
Yen Press is the second largest manga and light novel publisher in North America. The company, which was founded in 2006, released numerous forms of Asian print entertainment, including manga, light novels, manhwa (Korean), manhua (Chinese), and original American graphic novels.
Kadokawa Corporation is a subsidiary of Kadokawa Dwango Corporation and parent of Kadokawa Shoten. The company underwent major restructuring in 2015, which saw several core brands dissolved and a mass consolidation of staff.
Source: Yen Press
