Though we cannot imagine anyone out there biting their nails over Les Moonves’s thoughts on the future of Simon & Schuster, there is a sense of relief that Moonves has said that the publishing house will remain part of the CBS family. Sure, there could be more synergy, but, you know, there can always be more synergy. That’s the problem with synergy, once you get a little, you’re like an addict.
He then shines a light on the future before asking and answering a rhetorical question:
Although he acknowledged that the synergy between S&S and other CBS units could be better, he said he liked the fact S&S was in the content business, and he was optimistic about books’ role in the digital future. “With everything else in our society going digital, how can books fail to benefit?,” Moonves said. “And when that happens, what’s a backlist of 17,000 great titles going to be worth? Remains to be seen, but I’m optimistic.”
