Simon & Schuster Australia has acquired Melbourne-based independent publisher Affirm Press for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2010, Affirm has a backlist of around 750 titles and publishes around 100 new books annually. Completion of the purchase is subject to customary closing conditions.
Affirm was founded in 2010 by Martin Hughes, now CEO and publishing director, and Graeme Wise, chairman of Australian investment firm Adidem Group, to publish books on a limited basis. It became a full-time business when Keiran Rogers, now sales and finance director, joined the company in 2013. The company publishes both fiction and nonfiction for adults, and added children’s books to its range in 2017.
The purchase of Affirm will boost S&S Australia’s expansion efforts. In recent years, the company has expanded its offering to include audiobook publishing and added more titles by Australian authors to its range, while also increasing the number of titles from foreign publishers. In addition, S&S Australia launched Bundyi Publishing, which focuses on publishing books by First Nation authors, and added Summit Books Australia as part of S&S’s plan to revive its international publishing business under Judy Clain.
Affirm’s Martin Hughes said that as the publisher has grown, it has been looking for a potential partner to improve its technological and production capabilities and give it more opportunities for international growth. “For us, joining forces with a company with operational scale makes absolute sense, and we look forward to getting back to focusing on what we love most – creating, producing, publishing and selling books that benefit the community,” Hughes said in a statement.
Dan Ruffino, managing director of S&S Australia, said Affirm’s publishing program “strategically fits with our vision for the future of the Australian and New Zealand market and we can’t wait to work with them.”
The purchase of Affirm is S&S’s second international acquisition since being taken over by private equity firm KKR in late 2023. In May, S&S agreed to acquire leading Dutch publisher Veen Bosch & Keuning (VBK). The two acquisitions fulfill a promise by S&S CEO Jonathan Karp and KKR’s Richard Sarnoff to expand S&S’s international presence as part of a comprehensive growth plan for America’s third-largest trade publisher.
