The New York Times is reporting the death of Reinhard Mohn on 3 October 2009. The 88-year-old German entrepreneur and publisher was the head of the Bertelsmann publishing conglomerate from 1947 to 1981, and maintained a presence with the company until his death.
In the US, Bertelsmann bought Random House in 1998 and adopted the latter name for its operations here (previously, it was known in the US variously as Bertelsmann and as Bantam Doubleday Dell). Among the company’s numerous imprints are sf/f/h publishers Ballantine, Bantam, Del Rey, Delacorte, Doubleday, and Spectra. The company is also involved in music publishing and book groups, and much more.
[Random House published SFScope Editor Ian Randal Strock’s book The Presidential Book of Lists last year.]

88-year-old Reinhard Mohn headed the Bertelsmann publishing conglomerate from 1947 to 1981…