New agreement builds on longstanding collaboration to bring Norton titles to audio listeners worldwide

Landover, MD, December 18, 2025—RBmedia, the largest audiobook publisher in the world, and W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., the oldest and largest independent, employee-owned book publishing house in the nation, today announced an exclusive audiobook publishing partnership. The agreement deepens the companies’ longstanding relationship and will expand the global audio reach of Norton’s celebrated catalog.

For more than a century, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. has been a defining independent voice in American publishing. Founded in 1923, Norton is renowned for editorial excellence and for books that endure. The company publishes across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, college textbooks, cookbooks, children’s books, and professional books. Norton titles have earned the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Booker Prize, and National Book Critics Circle Award, among many other honors.

“Audio has become essential to the way that readers discover and engage with books, and we are thrilled to expand our reach via this unique partnership,” said Elisabeth Kerr, Norton’s Director, Content and Business Strategy. “RBmedia and Norton have had an exceptional working relationship for years, and this new agreement deepens that collaboration—expanding awareness of our authors and ensuring that their work is produced, distributed, and made accessible with the quality, care, and editorial integrity both of our teams embrace.”

W. W. Norton & Company and RBmedia have collaborated for years to bring titles published by Norton and its imprints to audio, with recent releases including “Wings” by Paul McCartney (Liveright), “Dark Renaissance” by Stephen Greenblatt, “Taking Manhattan” by Russell Shorto, and “The Gales of November” by John U. Bacon (Liveright). Together, Norton and RBmedia have brought many award-winning titles to listeners, including Pulitzer Prize winners “The Overstory” by Richard Powers and “The Hemingses of Monticello” by Annette Gordon-Reed (which also received the National Book Award); Audie Award winner “Jerusalem” by Alan Moore (Liveright); and AudioFile Earphones Award recipients “We the People” by Jill Lepore (Liveright) and “Wild Thing” by Sue Prideaux, one of the New York Times Ten Best Books of 2025.

Other notable Norton titles previously published in audio by RBmedia include:

• “Nomadland” by Jessica Bruder
• “Mama’s Last Hug” by Frans de Waal
• “These Truths” by Jill Lepore
• “SPQR” by Mary Beard (Liveright)
• “The Color of Law” by Richard Rothstein (Liveright)
• “The Food Lab” by J. Kenji López-Alt
• “A Children’s Bible” by Lydia Millet
• “Jesus and John Wayne” by Kristin Kobes Du Mez (Liveright)
• “Free Lunch” by Rex Ogle (Norton Young Readers)

Upcoming audiobooks to be released by RBmedia under this new partnership include:

• “Son of Nobody” by Yann Martel
• “The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State” by Jill Lepore (Liveright)
• “Evelyn in Transit” by David Guterson
• “Own Your Fertility” by Jaime Knopman, MD, with Rebecca Raphael (Countryman Press)

“We are proud to be partnering with a publisher as celebrated and prestigious as W. W. Norton & Company,” said Troy Juliar, Chief Content Officer for RBmedia. “One hundred years of publishing means something: an unmatched legacy of editorial rigor, literary excellence, and books that endure. We share that commitment to lasting work, and we’re excited to bring even more of Norton’s extraordinary authors and storytelling to life in audio for listeners worldwide.”

W. W. Norton audiobooks will be published across a number of RBmedia brands, including Recorded Books, Tantor, Dreamscape, HighBridge, and Ascent Audio. Titles will be available for download on leading audio platforms, including Audible, Spotify, Apple Books, Google Play, Audiobooks.com, OverDrive, Hoopla, and wherever audiobooks are sold.

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About RBmedia

RBmedia is the largest audiobook publisher in the world. With more than 90,000 titles, our audiobooks continually top key literary awards and bestseller lists. The company’s powerful digital retail and library distribution network reaches millions of listeners around the globe—at home, in the car, and everywhere their mobile devices go. Our titles are available on leading audio platforms, including Audible, Spotify, Apple, Google Play, Audiobooks.com, Storytel, OverDrive, Hoopla, and many more. RBmedia is owned by H.I.G. Capital and Francisco Partners. Find out more at rbmediaglobal.com.

About W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. is the nation’s oldest and largest independent, employee-owned book publishing house. The firm was founded by William Warder Norton and Mary Dows Herter Norton in 1923 and now publishes approximately 450 books annually in its combined groups and imprints. It continues to adhere to its original motto, “Books That Live,” striving to publish works of enduring distinction in the areas of nonfiction, fiction, poetry, textbooks, and digital media.