On January 25, 2019, Penguin Random House announced that the imprint was being shut down and the two founders were leaving.

[2][3] While commercially successful, the imprint "became yet another casualty of corporate restructuring," according to the New York Times.

They said the independent publisher will produce 15 to 20 books a year, as well as original audiobooks and podcasts.

[5] In 2021, Spiegel & Grau's first release as an independent entity, Fox and I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven, became an instant New York Times bestseller.

Writers whose work has been published by Spiegel & Grau include the following:[6]