“I Hired Them. They Reported Me for Missing a DEI Meeting” – Oliver Malcolm

Oliver Malcolm (0:02)

I was actually reported once for not attending a D&I meeting. Caving in to staff on some of these smaller issues, and maybe not even debating them, is much easier than saying no. It is a problem when the publishing industry and the thoughts and teams within that are almost like an Islington dinner party. What I really rage against is when there's a suppression of ideas.

Francis Foster (0:26)

And I kind of saw the real side of publishing maybe. I had this really surreal conversation where I sat down with the same editor, and she said to me, we are not going to be promoting the book. We're going to focus on digital sales, which means they weren't going to print it.

Oliver Malcolm (0:44)

You had an experience which I've seen multiple times over the years. Part of the antagonism just came, oh, it's him from TRIGGERnometry. Don't want to do it.

Francis Foster (0:55)

Do you want a little slice of TRIGGERnometry for yourself? Then head over to our merch store, where you'll be able to buy hoodies, t-shirts, caps, prints, stickers, posters, and of course, the world famous TRIGGERnometry mug.

Konstantin Kisin (1:08)

Go to shop.triggerpod.co.uk. That's shop.triggerpod.co.uk and become part of the show.

Ollie, welcome to TRIGGERnometry.

Oliver Malcolm (1:18)

Thank you very much.

Konstantin Kisin (1:19)

I really look forward to speaking with you about the publishing industry. With some inside stories.

Francis' book being canceled is one of them, of course, that you were involved in, and what happened to you as well. Before we get into all that, tell us a little bit about your background, your story, how you eventually ended up here.

Oliver Malcolm (1:37)

Sure. So first of all, I've noticed by the way I'm mimicking your body language, which hopefully is a good sign. But yeah, I was originally a history graduate. I studied fundamentally modern history and Nazism at the University of Sheffield. That was probably in the years of maybe around about 2000 And I actually went to Sheffield Uni because Ian Kershaw was a bit of a hero of mine at school. He's obviously written his incredible biographies of Hitler. And obviously had a huge amount of exposure to a new framework of ideas. And I found it incredibly motivating. And so having done that degree, I did the thing you'd always do is go and work for GlaxoSmithKline.

And I did, I think I did about 18 months to two years there. And when I say I worked for GlaxoSmithKline, really I was working as a sale rep for the Ribena brand. So what looked good on paper, the days of day wasn't quite so motivating. So didn't last long in that sort of corporate world. But saw an advert to work as a key account manager for what was then Random House.

Came down to London. I was obviously brought up in a very, very different environment. I was brought up in the Peak District. And actually my father's, I guess, fairly itinerant in that he was born in Bombay.

But I worked in publishing for maybe four or five years at Random House, followed by a decade at Harper Collins, and then a couple of years at Hachette. I think what was quite interesting-

Konstantin Kisin (3:13)

These are for people who are not familiar with the publishing world. These are big publishers, really, really big. Some of the biggest publishers in the world. Sure.

Oliver Malcolm (3:21)

I mean, they are the biggest three publishers in the world. And I guess what's quite privileged about my experience is that I work, not only with different publishers in different houses, but I work sort of cross-functionally. I worked in sales, I worked in editorial, and I worked as a managing director. I was also a very fortuitousist. I got to work on the board across the UK and Australia.

But yeah, I think I've got a fairly interesting insight on what actually happens behind the curtain.

Konstantin Kisin (3:50)

And what have you seen over the years that means you're sitting here today?

Because the reason I say this is we were talking before we started and we remembered our friend Sean Walsh, he came on the show. And I remember saying to him, you've been on Live at the Polo, you've been on this show, you've been on that show, you've been on...

Francis Foster (4:09)

Mock the Week.

Konstantin Kisin (4:11)

All of them, right? And now you're on TRIGGERnometry, what happened?

And I think your story is actually very much along the same lines because you're reacting to things that were happening in your industry that have ended up in a very different place for you personally.