Macmillan Publishers

Macmillan Publishers announced the creation of a new Chief Technology Officer role in March 2026, appointing the co-founder and co-CEO of CHAPTR — Holtzbrinck's AI company — to lead company-wide AI integration, data transformation, and process improvements.

Macmillan Publishers created the CTO role for the first time in its history in March 2026, appointing Darryll Colthrust effective April 7, 2026. Colthrust was previously co-founder and co-CEO of CHAPTR, the Holtzbrinck-backed AI company that built Reedy, Essence, and Amplify. At Macmillan, his mandate is described as advancing 'data and technology transformation, AI integration, and process improvements' across the company. Colthrust retains an advisory role at Holtzbrinck and a scaled-back capacity as co-CEO of CHAPTR. This appointment signals a structural commitment at the executive level to AI adoption, though specific AI deployments that result from this role are not yet confirmed by primary sources.

Macmillan Publishers integrated access to Essence, an AI tool built by CHAPTR (Holtzbrinck's AI company), which summarizes manuscripts and extracts key information to help publishing teams evaluate submissions more efficiently.

Essence is described by CHAPTR as an AI-powered tool that creates summaries of manuscripts in different lengths and extracts key information, turning long texts into 'clear, comparable insights for day-to-day decision-making.' Publishers Weekly reported the tool is designed to 'help publishing teams understand and assess manuscripts more efficiently.' Macmillan's new CTO, appointed in March 2026, was previously co-CEO of CHAPTR and is expected to advance integration of tools like Essence into Macmillan's workflows. Whether Essence is currently actively deployed at Macmillan US specifically, as opposed to being available to Macmillan-affiliated publishers through CHAPTR, is not confirmed from primary sources.

Macmillan Publishers integrated AI tools to improve book metadata at scale, using the CHAPTR-built platform Reedy, which analyzes catalog titles and recommends updated keywords, descriptions, and subject codes to improve book discoverability.

CHAPTR, a tech company founded in 2022 and backed by Macmillan's parent company Holtzbrinck, developed Reedy specifically for publishers. Reedy's AI engine analyzes existing metadata from ONIX files and recommends updates to keywords, descriptions, and subject classification codes (THEMA), while a human metadata manager reviews and approves changes. CHAPTR has confirmed it collaborated with Macmillan and Pan Macmillan on this tool. Pan Macmillan's public AI statement also references 'AI-boosted metadata processes' as an active part of its publishing workflow. The tool is aimed at efficiently updating large backlist catalogs that would be impractical to update manually at scale.