Paramount launches publishing imprint

Paramount sold Simon & Schuster for $1.62 billion in October 2023, and now it is back in books with a new in-house unit called Paramount Global Publishing. This time the plan is not to run a giant trade publisher but to turn Paramount characters and worlds into books, then turn some of those books back into screen projects. (kkr.com) (paramount.com) The new imprint launched on April 8, 2026, and it will start in the United States and Canada before expanding internationally. Paramount said it will develop, create and produce the books itself, while a partner that has not been named yet will handle sales and retail distribution. (paramount.com) (publishersweekly.com) Paramount is also not abandoning the old model where outside publishers make licensed books tied to its franchises. The company said the new imprint will sit alongside those licensing deals, which means it can do some projects itself and farm out others. (paramount.com) (thewrap.com) The franchises on the launch list are the ones you would expect from a studio trying to squeeze more life out of familiar names: Star Trek, SpongeBob SquarePants, Yellowstone, Dora, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, PAW Patrol and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Those are brands that already sell toys, streaming subscriptions and movie tickets, so books become one more lane in the same highway. (paramount.com) (deadline.com) There is a second lane here too: original stories that do not start as existing franchises. Paramount and trade outlets both described the imprint as a place to incubate new intellectual property, which is entertainment-industry shorthand for creating characters and worlds that can later become films, television series, games or consumer products. (paramount.com) (hollywoodreporter.com) That strategy has become more attractive because books are a relatively cheap way to test ideas before spending tens of millions of dollars on production. A novel or illustrated title can show whether a setting, villain or side character actually attracts an audience before a studio commits to a streaming series or theatrical release. (hollywoodreporter.com) (publishersweekly.com) The new unit will sit inside Paramount’s Products & Experiences division rather than inside a movie studio label or a television network. That placement tells you the company sees books less as a standalone literary business and more as part of the same machine that handles merchandise, live experiences and franchise extensions. (thewrap.com) (variety.com) The timing also fits the post-merger shape of the company. Publishers Weekly said the imprint arrives with Paramount now part of the Skydance media empire, and the launch language from the company frames books as a way to deepen fan engagement while feeding a larger cross-platform pipeline. (publishersweekly.com) (paramount.com) So the unusual part is not that a Hollywood company wants to publish books. The unusual part is that Paramount sold one of the biggest book publishers in America in 2023 and, less than three years later, built a smaller book operation designed specifically to manufacture franchise fuel. (kkr.com) (variety.com)