.svg) | |
| Parent company | Penguin Random House |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1974; 51 years ago (1974) London, England, UK |
| Founders | Christopher Dorling Peter Kindersley |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters location | 80 Strand[1] London, England, UK |
| Key people | Paul Kelly |
| Imprints | Alpha, DK Eyewitness Travel, DK Children’s, DK Adult, DK Licensing, DK Learning, Phonic Books, Rebel Girls |
| No. of employees | 750 |
| Official website | www |
Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded asDK) is a British multinationalpublishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages.[2] It is part ofPenguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media conglomerateBertelsmann.Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (includingDK Eyewitness Travel), history, geography, science, space, nature, sports, gardening, cookery, parenting and many others. The worldwide CEO of DK is Paul Kelly. DK has offices in New York, Melbourne, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto, Madrid, Beijing, and Jiangmen.DK works with licensing partners such asDisney,LEGO,DC Comics, theRoyal Horticultural Society,MasterChef, and theSmithsonian Institution. DK has commissioned authors such asMary Berry,Monty Don,Robert Winston, Huw Richards, andSteve Mould for a range of books.
DK was founded in 1974 byChristopher Dorling andPeter Kindersley in London as abook packager. Its first book as a publisher in the UK wasFirst Aid Manual for the British voluntary medical services.[3] In 1988, DK Inc. published the first Eyewitness book. DK Inc. began publishing in the United States in 1991. That same year,Microsoft bought a 26 percent stake in DK.[4] In 1996, DK hired Neal Porter, Richard Jackson and Melanie Kroupa fromOrchard Books to start the DK Ink imprint, butGrolier sued the trio.[5] DK and Grolier settled the lawsuit.[6]
In 1999, DK overestimated the market forStar Wars books and was left with millions of unsold copies, resulting in crippling debt.[7] As a direct result, DK was taken over the following year by thePearson plc media company and made part ofPenguin Group, which also owned thePenguin Books label.[8] DK has continued to sellStar Wars books after the takeover.[9]
In 2013, Bertelsmann and Pearson completed a merger to form Penguin Random House.[10] Bertelsmann owned 53% and Pearson 47% of the company. Penguin's trade publishing activity continued to include DK under the newly formed Penguin Random House.[11] In July 2017, Pearson agreed to sell a 22% stake in the business to Bertelsmann, thereby retaining a 25% holding.[12][13]In December 2019, Bertelsmann agreed to acquire Pearson's 25% in Penguin Random House, and therefore DK, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann.[14]In 2019, Prima Games was sold to Asteri Holdings.[15]
DK publishes a range of titles internationally for adults and children. Most of the company's books are published with "DK" named as the author, as they are produced by teams of editors, designers and cartographers who work with freelance writers and illustrators. Some are endorsed by "imprimaturs": such as theBritish Medical Association, theRoyal Horticultural Society and theBritish Red Cross.[citation needed]
BradyGames was a publishing company in the United States operating as a DKimprint, which specializes in video gamestrategy guides, covering multiplevideo game platforms. It published its first strategy guide in November 1993 as a division ofMacMillan Computer Publishing. In 1998,Simon & Schuster (which acquired Macmillan in 1994) divested BradyGames as part of its educational division toPearson plc.[16] BradyGames has grown to publish roughly 90 to 100 guides per year.
On 1 June 2015, BradyGames merged withPrima Games, and future strategy guides made by the publishing company were published under the Prima Games label,[17] which was sold to Asteri Holdings in 2019.
DK commenced publishing books aimed at teens with the release ofHeads Up Psychology in 2014.[18]
| Bertelsmann Home Entertainment |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media assets | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Penguin Random House |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other assets |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
