Sk B1 Rollout Fdr- Public Affairs Proposal For Publication Of Report With Withdrawal Notice 507

PUBLICAFFATRS November 18, 2003

Mr. Philip D. Zelikow Executive Director National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States 301 7th Street SW, Suite 5125 Washington, DC 20407 Dear Philip: PublicAffairs is pleased to submit a proposal for the publication of the 9-11 Commission's report in book form. Enclosed with this letter is a formal proposal in which we address each of your seven criteria and questions point by pointAs you will see, some of the answers we provide depend on unknown factors. It is difficult, for example, for us to determine the exact price of the final book without knowing how long the manuscript will be. And so we present you with various possible scenarios. We understand that this is an on-going process and that our answers will likely change as the project develops. Perhaps the most important question in determining the nature of our relationship is how much editorial involvement and support you would like from us. We can provide as little or as much editorial input as you need. On one extreme, we can serve as a packager and distributor for the /report. We would page, print, and bind the report, turning the manuscript into a finished / paperback within 72 hours. In this scenario, while we would put all of our distribution, marketing and publicity muscle behind the book, we would not bring added editorial value to the project. On the other extreme, we could serve as editorial consultants and advisors to the project, helping you to consolidate the reports from the eight individual work teams and shape them into a complete, cohesive, and compelling single narrative. The goal would be to create an authoritative—as well as highly readable—account of the attacks of September 11, 2001 as well as analysis and recommendations on how to prevent such attacks in the future. In this scenario, we would supply editorial services as the report is being written, and publish the book at the moment the report is released to the public. There is much gray area between these two extremes. The degree of our editorial involvement in the project will have to do with (1) your desire for editorial help, (2) our access to the information, and (3) timing. It is imperative that the book—whatever its shape—be published simultaneously with the report's public release. That may prove to be the factor that most impacts the level of our editorial involvement. Why is PublicAffairs uniquely positioned to publish the Commission's report? There are two main reason: (1) confidentiality and (2) experience.

250 West. 57th Sireer, Suite 1321 • New York. New York 10107 tel 212 397 6666 . fax 212 397 4277 . e-mail [email protected]

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First, let us address the issue of confidentiality. PublicAffairs is a 15-person, independent company. This is not the norm. Most publishers are part of a larger media conglomerate. HarperCollins is owned by Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp (Fox, The New York Post); Simon & Schuster is owned by Sumner Redstone's Viacom (CBS, MTV); Little Brown and Warner Books are owned by AOL-Time Warner (CNN, Time); and Henry Holt's Times Books is affiliated with the New York Times. Publishers that are not directly owned by media conglomerates are often pan of a larger international entity, such as Knopf and Random House, which are owned by Bertelsmann. PublicAffairs does not have any confusing institutional or media affiliations. We are beholden only to ourselves and to our authors. It is crucial that the Commission's work not be perceived as having a conflict of interest by association with any foreign entity, television network, newspaper, or other media outlet. Independence—and confidentiality—are the key. Second, experience. PublicAffairs is small, fast, and agile. There is no bureaucracy to fight through and no red tape. You will have immediate access to a team that will be devoted to your project. The publishing experience will be a partnership of equals rather than a publisher/client relationship. Unlike the experience at a larger company, where your book may be one of many, at PublicAffairs, your book will be a top priority on a small and select list. You will benefit from the speed and attention of a focused team, but you will also have the vast academic and trade sales network of the Perseus Books Group as well as the distribution force of HarperCollins. Our past experience speaks for itself. A previous memo to you mentioned three PublicAffairs titles that intersect with the Commission's subject and needs. They are an eclectic bunch: The Starr Report, The Tiananmen Papers, and How Did This Happen: Terrorism and the New War. Here again is the relevance of those projects: (1) The Starr Report, a public domain document, was published on the day of its release in September 1998. We worked hi conjunction with the Washington Post, which gave us a disc of the report and their stories about the report. We produced and shipped a book in 72 hours, priced at $10. The Starr Report was. as you doubtless recall, a bestseller (net of our edition: 155,840 copies). The point is that despite the availability of the report on the Web and in newspapers, hundreds of thousands of people wanted to own the book version. The report of the 9-11 Commission would be a similar phenomenon; people will buy it in book form because it is a historical document, a memento, a keepsake—a necessary cornerstone to any educated person's personal library. (2) The Tiananmen Papery is the inside story of the Chinese leadership's decision to use force to quash student protests in Tiananmen Square in June 1989- The book was published in hardcover in January 2001. The relevance here is that the project was compiled and published in complete secrecy. The editors, Andrew Nathan of Harvard and Perry Link of Princeton, worked very closely with us to create a narrative from thousands of pages of documents smuggled out of China by a secret, high-ranking source within the Chinese government. As you may recall, publication created a front-page news sensation and, after the predictable questions about veracity, the book has become an accepted and respected version of events. It was published in paperback in June 2002.

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(3) How Did This Happen? was published immediately after September 11,2001. It consists of essays commissioned by us and Foreign Affairs. Published as a trade paperback priced at $14, it was widely read and discussed in part because we worked with the Council on Foreign Relations to create discussion panels across the nation, which were filmed and broadcast by C-SPAN. The 9-11 Commission report is obviously a model unto itself, but we would apply elements of all these books in our support. Finally, publicity: The release of the report will be a major event and you wJOU obviously have many resources in dealing with the press. We can help. PubltcAffairs has experience in handling such high-profile projects and Peter Osnos, as a former reporter and editor at the Washington Post and as a publisher for many years, has been involved in many subjects on this scale. We have the media contacts and publicity finesse to get the book the attention it deserves. We speak for our colleagues when we say that we are eager to work with you and your colleagues on obtaining the clearest possible hearing for the Commission findings. PublicAffairs was created in 1997 with the mission to publish intelligent works of nonfiction that help readers better understand the complicated world in which we live. Every year, we devote our energies to publishing only forty original hardcover books. We are very careful to select titles that fit the profile of our company—serious, thought-provoking books on issues that matter, written for a lay audience. The 9-11 Commission's report could not fit our mandate more perfectly. We look forward to participating in this historic project. Sincerely,

Peter Osnos Publisher and Chief Executive

Kate Darnton Senior Editor

WITHDRAWAL NOTICE RG: 148 Box: 00001 Series: Copies: 1

Folder: 0001 Document: 3 Stephanie Kaplan Files Pages: 7

ACCESS RESTRICTED The item identified below has been withdrawn from this file: Folder Title: Roll-Out Document Date: 11-18-2003 Document Type: Paper Special Media: From: To: Subject:

Public Affairs proposal for publication of Commiss ion final report

In the review of this file this item was removed because access to it is restricted. Restrictions on records in the National Archives are stated in general and specific record group restriction statements which are available for examination.

NND: 301 Withdrawn: 06-06-2008

b)

RETRIEVAL #: 301 00001 0001 3 System DocID: 2590