Who Owns Simon & Schuster?

Richard Simon and Max Schuster founded the company in New York in 1924. Their first title, The Cross Word Puzzle Book, turned a newspaper craze into a book format and launched the house with a bestseller. The partners built a reputation for commercial instincts and packaging innovation, including the slot machine style vending of their early crossword series.

In 1939 the company created Pocket Books, the first successful mass market paperback line in the United States. The format democratized book buying, putting cheap editions in drugstores and newsstands nationwide.

Ownership churned with publishing consolidation. The founders sold to Marshall Field's interests in 1944, repurchased the company in 1957, and sold it to Gulf and Western in 1975. Gulf and Western became Paramount, and Simon & Schuster spent almost five decades as the book arm of a media conglomerate that was successively renamed Paramount Communications, Viacom, CBS, and Paramount Global.

Growth under Paramount came through imprint building and acquisition. The 1994 purchase of Macmillan's trade operations brought Scribner, one of the most storied literary imprints in America. Atria, Gallery, Threshold Editions, and Avid Reader Press were built or acquired to cover commercial and nonfiction segments.

The 2023 move to KKR opened a new chapter: new imprints, international acquisitions including Dutch publisher VBK Uitgevers in 2024, an expanded third-party distribution business, and headcount growth of roughly 200 to 250 employees over two years.