The BBC Worldwide executive responsible for the deal to sell BBC Books to international publisher Random House has said redundancies will be kept to a minimum.
The BBC Worldwide executive responsible for the deal to sell BBC Books to international publisher Random House has said redundancies will be kept to a minimum.

Chris Weller, the managing director of the corporation's home entertainment business, told Broadcastjob losses among the division's 50 staff were inevitable but efforts would be made for those impacted to be transferred within BBC Worldwide or Random House.

'What we were thinking about [when making the sale] was the future of this company. Going forward we need a good partner, who is strong and robust and can take the business to another level.'

The BBC and external producers will now benefit from being linked to an international publishing company, he added.

'Random House has enormous reach and power for sales and distribution around the world. I think the combination of that has to be appealing to everybody.'

Weller would not confirm the exact stake Random House now has in BBC Books, whose titles include Rick Stein's French Odysseyand David Attenborough's Life in the Undergrowth, but said it was over 75% while maintaining the corporation's editorial and commercial policy guidelines and using the BBC's logo in an appropriate manner had been 'enshrined in the deal'.

He added that BBC Books would most likely make more money as a result of the deal. 'Obviously one of things which is recognised in the price paid is how much money is made going forward and not what it has made historically.'

Management of BBC Books will transfer to Random House in four weeks time, when it will decide how many staff to move from BBC Books' current headquarters in White City to Ebury premises in central London.