Anna Porter, pictured here in 2005, was one of the founders of Key Porter Books in 1979.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Key Porter Books, a prominent Canadian publishing house that has represented authors including Margaret Atwood and Joan Barfoot, has laid off almost two-thirds of its staff.
Harold B. Fenn, chair of Key Porter's parent company, said 11 of 17 employees were let go Wednesday, effective immediately. Positions were cut in editorial, publicity and marketing.
"We have made no secret of the lack of sales success in this fiscal year or in the last fiscal year," Fenn said Thursday.
The six remaining Key Porter staffers - in positions of publisher, managing editor, publicity, production, sales and contracts - will move from the Toronto office, which will close for good, to H.B. Fenn headquarters in Bolton, Ont., on Monday.
H.B. Fenn acquired controlling interest of Key Porter Books in July 2004.
Fenn says the company was not profitable at that time and financial results continued to disappoint, but this is the first time he's had to cut staff.
"It's something that I felt we could change over a couple of years and unfortunately it has continued to experience losses, and this year is no better," he said in a phone interview from Bolton.
"We are having difficulty with the net sales, returns have been exceptionally high and it has just come to the point where we've had to make the decision that the structure at Key Porter Books as it currently exists is just too large for the revenues that we were accomplishing."
Key Porter Books was founded as a joint venture of Anna Porter and Key Publishers in 1979 and incorporated in 1984. It has published about 100 titles per year and has over 500 titles in print.
Other authors on its roster over the years have included Conrad Black, Farley Mowat and former prime minister Jean Chrétien.
Fenn says the company suffered from a weak financial climate and a publishing industry that has "changed so drastically" in recent years.
"I've been in it for 51 years - 17 on the retail side and 34 on the publishing and distribution side - and the changes just over the last two years have been mind boggling.
"The future of the physical book is in question, e-books are perhaps going to take up 25 per cent of the market over the next two years and that means continuing pressure on sales of the physical book."
Literary agent Beverley Slopen, whose clients include Key Porter author Dr. David Posen, says she understands why Fenn made the move.
"The book business has been rocked in North America and certainly the U.K. and it's a huge change," she said. "It's exciting, it's challenging, but it is major.
"Now, it will sort itself but, but we don't have a timeline. I think people will always read, I think there will be books, but all the business models are in flux so I can understand when Harold Fenn says he wants to have a tighter focus for the moment and control costs."
Still, Fenn insisted he doesn't see Key Porter closing for good. And Tom Best, vice-president of marketing, said any reports that the company is bankrupt or will go bankrupt are "absolutely false."
The company now plans to focus on fewer titles and narrower categories, including Canadian politics, Canadian history, cookbooks, and sports-related books.
Fenn says over the next few weeks, they'll start streamlining their 2011 list but they don't plan to break contracts with authors.
"We haven't dropped any authors," said Fenn. "Our fall list goes ahead as we have planned for the last year or more."