Open Markets Leads in Stopping $1.4 Billion Printing Merger, in a Rare Win for Authors and Publishers

Washington, D.C. — Today, LSC Communications and Quad/Graphics, the two biggest magazine and book printers and distributors in America, abandoned their plans to merge. Last month, after Open Markets, Authors Guild, and PEN America sounded the alarm about the many threats the deal posed to the health and independence of news magazines and book publishers, the U.S. Justice Department sued to block the deal.

“This is a win for reporters, authors, editors, and publishers, and for the American public as a whole,” said Open Markets Executive Director Barry Lynn. “We hope it signals a growing willingness by the DOJ to move swiftly to block other mergers in that pose direct threats to the free press, freedom of expression, and the ability of citizens to educate themselves and their children, such as the T-Mobile/Sprint cell phone merger and McGraw-Hill/Cengage effort to roll up the American market for textbooks.”

In the letter to Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, Open Markets, the Authors Guild and PEN wrote that the deal was a “straightforward merger to monopoly” and called on the DOJ to block the merger.

Read the full letter to the DOJ here. 

For more information:

Open Markets Signs on to Coalition Letter Opposing T-Mobile-Sprint Mega-Merger
Open Markets: U.S. Enforcers Must Block the McGraw-Hill/Cengage Mega-Merger
American prosperity depends on stopping mega-mergers

Press Contact: Stella Roque at Open Markets Institute, roque@openmarketsinstitute.org