Catapult, the New York Book Publisher, Is Being Sold and Will Wind Down on 30 October
Catapult, a New York book publisher, is being sold, and its operations will wind down on 30 October. The Catapult Union confirmed the news to Publishers Lunch, a trade newsletter that covers the business of publishing.
The sale covers only the company's assets, meaning its property and contracts rather than the business as a whole. Staff will not be able to keep their jobs with the prospective buyer, the union said. Catapult had not replied to a request for comment when the report was published.
The union also says staff were told to keep the sale confidential while the company went on acquiring and publishing books. That means editors have been signing up new titles even as the company prepares to close. Catapult's imprints, which are labels with their own identity inside a larger publisher, include Catapult, Counterpoint and Soft Skull, according to Publishers Weekly. Counterpoint joined Catapult through a 2016 merger, and the two have operated under one umbrella since.
The timing is the sharpest part of the story. According to the union, Catapult announced its plans for a sale while a vote on whether staff would be represented by a union was still underway. That vote is run by the National Labor Relations Board, the United States federal agency that oversees union elections.
The unionising effort began earlier this year. In April, workers at Catapult formed a union with UAW Local 2110 and asked the National Labor Relations Board to hold a vote, Publishers Lunch reported at the time. The union also includes workers at Hawthorne Books, a separate press.
The closing date gives the company about nine days from the report to wind down. Catapult's book list, the catalogue of titles it publishes, will be affected by whatever happens to those assets next. The company has not yet commented on it.
