Peter Olson

Portfolio's Matt Malone interviewed ex-Random House CEO Peter Olson last month and no one noticed! Mr. Olson, who was given a teaching position at the Harvard Business School after German media conglomerate Bertelsmann removed him from the top of their publishing empire earlier this year, sounds like he's pretty happy to be out of the game, or at least at peace with it. Most of what he says is pretty anodyne, except for when he tells Mr. Malone that the hardest lesson he has ever learned is "not being overly distracted by short-term goals or the demands of a corporate parent."

Who knows how much this Q&A was edited and rearranged, but the brevity of the remark makes it seem like he's only pretending to say something vague and banal, and is actually referring to something specific. Namely, his decision to fire Ann Godoff from Random House's flagship imprint in January 2003 for not meeting profit expectations.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal has the story: Peter Olson's successor at Random House Inc. has been selected, and it's a German guy whom none of the publishers in New York have ever heard of. The name is Markus Dohle, and he comes from Arvato, the printing operation at Bertelsmann.

Mr. Dohle took over the top job at Arvato for Hartmut Ostrowski, who became chairman of the entire Bertelesmann corporation this past January. Mr. Ostrowski chose one of his own in nominating Mr. Dohle for the Random House appointment— a move many stateside industry observers predicted in recent weeks amid whispers and speculation that seems to come up basically every time a Random House C.E.O. abruptly leaves his job.  read more »