Barnes & Noble has sold Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., to Hachette Book Group. Sterling consists of adult imprints Union Square & Co., Puzzlewright Press, Sterling Ethos, and Spark Notes; the children's imprints Union Square Kids and Boxer Books; and the gift and stationery publishers Knock Knock and Em & Friends. It is the publisher of Mo Willems, Caroline Chambers, Dan Pelosi, Melissa Blair, L.S. Stratton, and Dusti Bowling, among others, and has a program of literary classics. B&N bought Sterling in 2003.
B&N said that all Sterling staff, publishing assets, and trademarks will transfer to Hachette. Sterling will continue to be headed by chief creative officer and publisher Emily Meehan, who will report to Ben Sevier, president and publisher of the Grand Central Publishing Group. Meehan joined the company in 2021 and oversaw its rebranding in January 2022 to Union Square & Co., influenced by B&N's Union Square headquarters in New York City.
B&N CEO James Daunt said, "Union Square has been a tremendous success under Emily's guidance. She and her team have transformed its publishing and, we began to realize, also to outgrow the infrastructure of a bookseller. Union Square will enjoy under Hachette the resources of a great publisher. As booksellers, we look forward to continuing our close relationship with Union Square and to its continued success."
Hachette CEO David Shelley said, "When we make an acquisition, we want to be sure that we can learn a lot from the company, and that we can add value to them with our ability to reach readers internationally. Both criteria are absolutely met in this case. Union Square is an extremely innovative and dynamic publishing house that has seen great growth in recent years, and I can't wait to help get their authors' work to even more readers around the world."