The new chairman of Random House America this morning announced a major, imprint-wide restructuring that means a few of the company’s more prominent executives are out, and a few others have heightened power. The industry has been abuzz about what new CEO Markus Dohle would do to lead the company into a newly decimated economic landscape; this morning he made it clear, and in a big way, with a letter to employees that announced the departure of long-time company honchos Bantam publisher Irwyn Applebaum and the man who brought The Da Vinci Code to the world, Doubleday publisher Steve Rubin (although Dohle’s letter hints vaguely at some other role being concocted for Rubin in the future). So who’s up? Sonny Mehta, for one, whose Knopf Publishing Group will take over Doubleday and its Nan A. Talese imprint. Gina Centrello, for another, whose Random House Group will take over will expand to include the imprints of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, including taking over the fabled literary imprint The Dial Press from Susan Kamil, and the recently invented (by Steve Rubin) Spiegel & Grau. And Jenny Frost, whose Crown Publishing Group will expand to include the rest of the Doubleday imprints — Broadway, Doubleday Business, Doubleday Religion and WaterBrook Multnomah.

• Interesting literary snob talking point for after the dust settles: In his detailing of what he thinks will be the impact of these changes, Dohle says that, among other things, “The Knopf Publishing Group will augment its enduring reputation as a leading publisher of quality nonfiction and literary fiction—and now some of the biggest names in fiction—with the addition of the flagship Doubleday and Nan A. Talese Books imprints.” In other words, Dohle makes something else clear in his letter: a distinction between “literary fiction” and “fiction.”