Penguin Random House Canada supports diverse voices

Last year, Kristin Cochrane, CEO of Penguin Random House Canada, packed and labelled a mountain of boxes in Toronto’s cavernous Rogers Centre, shipping books to underserved communities as part of the Read On Canada! campaign. In the social, event-based business of publishing, she loved being hands-on again.

“Sending off those boxes to our partnership groups across the country brings it to life more than just signing a cheque – although that matters too,” says Cochrane. “The books that kids are getting through this program may be the only ones they personally own, books they don’t have to return to the library. The pride of ownership and layers of understanding that come through reading a book over and over are critical for children.

“Extending into communities where there’s limited access to books is incredibly meaningful for us, as a book publisher and for our authors.”

Toronto-based Penguin Random House Canada actively supports local and national organizations and educational institutions aligned with its mission to make the literary world a more open and accessible place. To that end, in 2020 the company donated funds and books worth over $1.4 million.

For instance, in partnership with First Book Canada, the publisher launched the annual Raptors 905 Summer Reading Challenge in 2020, donating 1,000 copies of five books by Black authors, about Black characters, to 200 Grade 5 students in the basketball team’s home area.

“There’s a long overdue, ongoing racial reckoning happening in North America,” says Cochrane. “One of the things we talked about this year is to be explicit about it, not to be quiet. Given our status in the market and cultural responsibility as a publisher in Canada, we’ve learned the importance of leading and being visible as leaders.

“Having a shared conversation and creating the space for those conversations is important. This is just the beginning of what we will continue, whether with Indigenous authors, in Black literature or with writers from the LGBTQ+ community. We want to engage more directly with our writers to better understand the world, the better for all of us to learn and grow through one another’s stories.”

What happened to George Floyd was a real catalyst to action, says Anyka Davis, district sales manager, Québec and Atlantic Canada, and a member of the diversity, equity and inclusion committee.

“Management told us not to miss the moment, to do whatever we needed to do,” says Davis. “That kick-started and sped up initiatives that were already in progress, including a forum for our racialized colleagues to come together. They may be the only racialized person on their team, so there was that feeling of isolation.”

The committee also created a special session for Asian colleagues to grieve after the Atlanta spa shootings last March and launched an anonymous channel for questions and concerns.

“Internally, some of our processes have changed at work,” says Davis. “We are focusing more on books that have been traditionally underserved by the entire publishing industry, such as books by racialized authors. There’s been a shift in how we think about the books we publish and how we market those books.”

The company has also engaged consultants to partner with it on a range of anti-racism training sessions.

“It was great to have an expert walk us through it,” says Davis. “There’s really no wrong way of doing this work. It just has to get done. You can’t let fear keep you from doing the work that needs to be done.

“Diversity is not a trend or a fad. The company has made it clear we’re committed to working on projects going into the future.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada's Top 100 Employers winners, published November 12, 2021 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.