In the past year or so, three Australian publishing mergers happened within a few short months. Text Publishing, Pantera Press and Affirm Press were all absorbed into a larger company. Once a company has shareholders, like Penguin Random House and Simon and Schuster (which acquired Affirm and Text), the business is geared to generate the greatest return for them.
Meanwhile, the closure of 85-year-old literary journal Meanjin has drawn the ire of industry insiders and readers in Australia and abroad.
