As the publishing world copes with massive recession restructuring, assistant editor Ben Steinberg has emerged with one of the strangest and oddly heartening stories–losing his job and getting rehired at another publisher in 24 hours flat.
When HarperCollins shuttered the Collins division in early February, Steinberg lost his job as assistant editor for CollinsBusiness. That same day, he secured an interview with another publishing house. By the next morning, he was hired by Susan Mercandetti and Bob Loomis as an assistant editor at the Random House imprint.
He explained in a GalleyCat interview: “It was such a whirlwind of emotion: first frustrating, disappointing and disheartening to being optimistic, with potential happiness and then finally some assurance. Though of course I feel very blessed and lucky to have gotten this job, and still am upset over my wonderful coworkers who lost theirs, it dawned on me that maybe the industry isn’t falling apart after all? That, maybe everything will be all right?”