A MEMO FROM JONATHAN KARP

May 13, 2024

Dear Colleagues,

Adam Rothberg, who has long personified the voice and spirit of Simon & Schuster, and who flawlessly orchestrated and oversaw our magnificent 100^th anniversary celebrations, has decided to end his 35-year tenure on a high note and begin his retirement at the end of July.

Adam’s official title is Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, but he has been much more than that to me and many other colleagues, especially my predecessors as CEO, Jack Romanos and Carolyn Reidy. Adam has been the one to make our public comments more graceful and gracious and our written remarks more thoughtful and memorable. Adam’s empathetic and strategic approach to his work has informed our policies and helped make Simon & Schuster’s leadership more connected to the concerns of our employees and authors. These qualities have been especially critical over the past few years as we navigated the sale process, our transition to new ownership, and the establishment of Simon & Schuster as an independent, standalone publishing company.

On numerous occasions, Adam has correctly anticipated the questions we might hear – internally or externally – and framed constructive responses. Some people in Adam’s line of work are good at putting out fires, but Adam is so attuned to the subtleties of the publishing business that he’s often on the scene before there’s even a puff of smoke.

He is also a superb wordsmith and communicator. During one of the many political book controversies of 2020 and 2021, it was Adam who wrote, “We come to work each day to publish, not cancel.” It has always bothered me that I got credit for that artful phrasing; it was Adam’s.

Adam began his publishing career in 1985 in the publicity department of Pocket Books. He left Simon & Schuster in 1994 to become Director of Publicity at Villard Books/Random House, where we first met, but returned to Simon & Schuster in 1999 to work in Corporate Communications. For the past 25 years, he has been exemplary, overseeing all of our internal communications and external media relations as a savvy and straight-shooting spokesperson who has long held the trust and respect of the publishing beat journalists. He has also overseen our philanthropic activities, reinforcing our dedication as a company to champion literacy and freedom of speech, and to support authors, booksellers, and members of our greater community who are in need.  

Before taking on his corporate work, Adam conducted publicity campaigns for numerous critically acclaimed and bestselling books, including INTO THIN AIR and INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer, THE UNLIKELY SPY by Daniel Silva, THE PROUD HIGHWAY by Hunter S. Thompson, BY GEORGE by George Foreman and RAGE TO SURVIVE by Etta James.

We will be celebrating Adam’s retirement in July. In the interim, please join me in thanking Adam for his extraordinary service to Simon & Schuster. We have been the beneficiary of his talent and we will miss his judgment, intelligence, humor and compassion.

Jonathan