pantheon and random house, which at the time was owned by si newhouse, were plagued with controversy throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. in december 1989, alberto vitale, a former banker, replaced robert l. berstein as chairman and president of random house. in february 1990, schiffrin was "asked to resign after he refused to reduce the number of titles published [by pantheon] or to trim pantheon's 30-member staff". in protest at schiffrin's forced resignation and other changes in staffing, such as the hiring of erroll mcdonald, editors and staff tom engelhardt, wendy wolf, sara bershtel, jim peck, susan rabiner, david sternbach, helena franklin, diane wachtell, gay salisbury, and several others resigned in the following months. authors of books published by pantheon, random house, and other related imprints, including studs terkel, kurt vonnegut jr., princeton historian arno mayer, and barbara ehrenreich, held a protest outside random house in march 1990 during which they argued that the termination of schiffrin amounted to corporate censorship of the books that would not be printed without him. novelist e. l. doctorow used his acceptance speech for a fiction prize at the march 1990 national book critics circle award ceremony to criticize random house for ousting schiffrin.