Mohn Media is already the leading offset printing company in Europe, and now the company is increasingly setting its sights on the U.S. as well. The leap across the pond has now brought the first notable success. Mohn Media has secured an order to produce the Beastie Boys Book for Spiegel & Grau, part of Penguin Random House. The 600-page memoir by the world-famous hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, who had their heyday in the 1980s and ’90s, is being produced in Gütersloh and will subsequently be distributed in the United States.
A small business development team has been working for 18 months to establish Mohn Media in the U.S. print market—a perfect extension of the black and white print and cover finishing services the U.S.-based Printing Group companies mainly offer. The depth of production, the value chain, and the manageable lead times make it possible to produce books for the U.S. and offer clients and suppliers alike exciting added value, says the Gütersloh-based company. Thanks to its gigantic capacities, Mohn Media is also ideally equipped for short-notice productions. “We see great potential for our business in the U.S.,” says Mohn Media CEO Dirk Kemmerer. “The step across the ocean is a perfect fit with our strategy of positioning ourselves even more internationally in the future.”
The six-figure print run of the first edition alone—together with the Beastie Boys’ popularity—has earned this book the considerable attention it is already receiving well before its publication date. Numerous articles have been published, including in renowned publications such as “Rolling Stone” magazine and “New York Times.” However, this project is much more than a simple print job for Mohn Media, the company says. It proves that that internal collaboration at Bertelsmann works, even across business divisions and oceans. Richard Elman, Director of Production for Random House, who managed the project, noted, “This was our first project with Mohn, and we could not have been more pleased. Aside from their producing a stunning book, the sales and customer service representation was an integral factor in producing this title. All of our production concerns and requests were addressed in a swift and efficient manner. We are very much looking forward to our next project with them.”
“Working with the team at Mohn was a wonderful experience,” says Lisa Feuer, Senior Vice President, Executive Director of Production at Random House Publishing Group in the U.S. “We trusted them with an extremely important and challenging project, and we couldn’t be more pleased. I think that this is the beginning of a great partnership.”
