WSJ signs deal with HarperCollins

Kira Bindrim of Crain’s New York writes Monday that The Wall Street Journal has signed a three-year deal with book publisher HarperCollins to come out with a series of tomes on business topics and the recession.

Bindrim writes, “Under the deal, HarperCollins will work with the Journal on a series of WSJ-branded books, including its first title: The Wall Street Journal Guide to The End of Wall Street As We Know It: What You Need to Know About the Greatest Financial Crisis of Our Time—And How to Survive It, which is set to publish in January 2009. Plans are also in the works to publish The Wall Street Journal Guide to Management in early 2010.

“The agreement does not require WSJ reporters to shop their narrative book ideas with HarperCollins first, although the company offers free promotion packages as an incentive to choose Harper. ‘We’re prepared to offer a boatload of advertising and marketing support for books purchased by HarperCollins that are from our folks at the Journal,’ said Rose Ellen D’Angelo, WSJ’s books and special projects director. ‘We would love to be able to participate in that.’

“The deal is similar in structure to the Journal’s current three-year agreement with Random House’s Crown division, under which Journal reporters were required to give Crown first-look at potential titles. That deal ends in March and industry insiders have long speculated Mr. Murdoch would look to build a new partnership in-house.”

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