New President Random House Publishing Sanyu Dillon

[Mel Hopkins]

 

Sanyu Dillon, Black Executive CMO Alliance Founding Member, will head up Random House Publishing. According to the New York Times, the publishing company's former chief marketing officer will now lead Random House, the Dial Press, and One World imprints.  One World is described as having a multicultural focus. And its editor-in-chief, Chris Jackson, has worked with literary luminaries such as Ta-Nehisi Coates, the civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson and emcee Jay Z.  From Forbes, "Dillon is also extremely passionate about driving inclusiveness in publishing, which is why she launched, "All Ways Black" a community and platform that celebrates Black literature. The Instagram account is curated by Cree Myles.

 

Note: NYT link is a gift article. No paywall.

[Troy]

Wow, this is incredible news @Mel Hopkins -- thanks for sharing! I have not read the article yet but will get to it.

 

I believe this may make Sanyu the most senior Black person in Publishing! 

 

This reminds me of a conversation from 5 years about when I posted an article, published 10 years before that conversation, sharing the people behind Black books: 

 

 

We talked about how publishing was dominated by white people.  Sanyu's promotion is a step in the right direction  This is a change that Random House did not have to make. 

 

I was not previously familiar with "All Ways Black," but I'm not active on Instagram... Though I did start Tiktoking (is that a verb?) a few minutes ago  

 

 

[Mel Hopkins]

@Troy,

The article refers to Ms. Dillon like she was an afterthought smh. I hope you will follow up on your post here and Interview her! Seriously, that would be “so dope!”

[Troy]

Good idea Mel!