PEOPLE
On the heels of news that Emily Loose has left Penguin Press to become a Senior Editor at The Free Press comes news that Ray Roberts is retiring from Viking, after 40 years in the business. Meanwhile, Executive Editor Michael Millman is leaving Penguin, where he focused on Penguin Classics. He may be reached at msmillman@earthlink.net. Caroline White, also at Penguin Classics, left in January.
Ex-Penguinites Julie Grau and Cindy Spiegel hired Michael Mezzo, from Little, Brown, as Editor, and Chris Jackson away from Crown, to be Executive Editor. Sean Desmond is going to Crown as a Senior Editor. He was at Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin‘s….And Jason Pinter has left Warner to become an editor at Three Rivers Press.
Roger Cooper has been named VP Publisher of CDS Books/Perseus. He was EVP at iBooks/Byron Preiss Visual Publications.
Carole Baron has entered into an agreement with Knopf to acquire and edit books for the company while continuing as SVP and Publishing Director of Bookspan.
Leah Spiro has left HarperCollins where she was a Senior Editor specializing in business books. She may be reached at leah.spiro@mindspring. . . . Michael Broussard has joined ReganMedia as a Senior Editor, reporting to Cal Morgan and Judith Regan. He had been an agent at Dupree/Miller & Associates.
In children’s, lots of changes: Ken Wright, VP Editorial Director at Scholastic, is leaving as of March 10 and may be reached at kwright39@nyc.rr.com.. . .Little, Brown Marketing Director Bill Boedeker went to Africa for 3 weeks and “had some time to think/reflect.” The result is that he has quit his job and will travel in Australia and volunteer in Africa, and return at some indeterminate time, possibly to “grown-up books.” Following Jean Feiwel‘s recent move, Liz Szable has been named VP, Editor-in-Chief of the new, unnamed children’s unit at Holtzbrinck. She had been Editorial Director at Scholastic Press since 1998. Holtzbrinck also announced it is creating a merchandise sales division under Steve Kleckner, who will hold the new position of VP, Director of Merchandise Sales, reporting to Alison Lazarus. Kleckner has been at TokyoPop. . . . Scholastic will start an audio program, run by Publisher Jennifer Feldman, who reports to Alan Waldman, SVP and GM of Interactive Products. Feldman was previously VP Publisher BBC Audiobooks. . . . . And Tracy van Straaten will join Scholastic at the end of March in the new position of VP, Trade Publicity, reporting to VP Trade Marketing, Suzanne Murphy. Von Straaten has been Executive Director at S&S Children’s. . . . Robin Corey has gone to Random House as a VP of her eponymous imprint. She was previously an EVP at S&S’s Children’s…
In other news, Elizabeth Sheinkman has been named senior agent and Director of the book board at Curtis Brown. She had worked at the Elaine Markson Agency and most recently in London. . . .Laura Mazer has been name ME of Seal Press/Avalon. . . . Michele Matrisciani has joined HCI as Editorial Director. She was previously an editor at McGraw-Hill Trade. And Andrea Gold has joined HCI as an editor. She was previously an editor at LRP Publications, also in Florida.
NYT publishing reporter Ed Wyatt is leaving with his wife, Jennifer Steinhauer for LA, raising the periodic question of who publishers will have to educate next.
Julie Merberg announced Pam Abrams has joined Downtown Bookworks as SVP. Most recently, she was VP/Editor in Chief of Parent and Family Publishing at Scholastic. Merberg, who had formerly been a partner at Round Table Press, started Downtown last spring.
Trish Lande Grader has joined Touchstone Fireside as Senior Editor. Most recently she had been Executive Editor at Morrow. . . . Clarkson Potter hired Chris Navratil from Chronicle as Editorial Director of Potter Style. Doris Cooper went to Clarkson Potter as Editorial Director in January.
OUP announced that Laura Brown, President of the US division, has stepped down and will be succeeded by Tim Barton, who has been MD of Oxford’s Academic Division since early 2004. He will continue his previous responsibilities.
With Chris McCabe leaving, Courtney Muller will oversee BEA until she names McCabe’s successor. She has been named a Group VP at Reed Exhibitions, and will once again be working with hubby Roger Bilheimer, who took over many of Tina Jordan‘s duties when she left for the AAP. He remains a consultant to Reed.
The Association of Booksellers for Children has hired Kristen McLean as Executive Director, taking over from Anne Irish. McLean was Marketing Manager for Houghton Mifflin‘s Kingfisher Publications.
David Moench has joined Ballantine as Publicity Manager for Del Rey. He had been a senior publicist at Holtzbrinck‘s Tor, Forge, and Starscape imprints.
Heather Drucker has been named to the newly created position of Publicity Director at Bookspan. She was at Kodansha America.
Zoe Fishman has been named Foreign Rights Director at Lowenstein-Yost Associates. Fishman was previously at Atria and Pocket Books as Subsidiary Rights Associate.
Irv Myers joined PGW as COO/ EVP. Most recently he was EVP and COO for Rowman Littlefield Publishing Group and NBN.
Jericho Communications, the PR agency, is closing its doors. Greg Mowery and Maryann Palumbo will continue working from their respective homes.
Rich Kelley has left his position as Director of Marketing and Membership for the New York Academy of Sciences and may be reached at RichKelley@ nyc.rr.com.
PROMOTIONS
At Harcourt, Editor-in-Chief Becky Saletan has been given the additional title of Associate Publisher.
Marion Maneker has been named VP and Publisher of Collins Business.
Group SVP and Deputy Publisher Libby McGuire has been made Publisher of Ballantine, continuing to report to group President and Publisher Gina Centrello. Director of Marketing Kim Hovey becomes Associate Publisher at Ballantine. Nancy Miller has given up her title as Editor-in-Chief of Ballantine, and now has the title of SVP, Executive Editor for the Random House imprint, reporting to Dan Menaker.Villard will now be part of the Ballantine list and Bruce Tracy and Caroline Sutton are now Executive Editors at Ballantine, reporting to McGuire. Random House Associate Publisher Tom Perry, moves to Ballantine, and now reports directly to Centrello. Sally Marvin becomes Publicity Director for the Random imprints, and Brian McLendon becomes Publicity Director for Ballantine both reporting to Perry.
Penguin announced that Paul Slovak has been named Publisher of Viking. He was previously VP and Associate Publisher. And Wendy Wolf has been named Editorial Director of nonfiction, while Molly Stern has been named Editorial Director of fiction. Both retain their roles as executive editors. All three will continue to report to Clare Ferraro.
VNU Business Media has announced the promotion of Kelly Roman to Sales Director of VNU US Literary Group. Roman will oversee marketing and sales efforts for VNU’s Kirkus and The Book Standard properties. Roman will report to MD Jerome Kramer.
Jane Dentinger has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief, Mystery Guild…Carol Mackey has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief, Black Expressions.
At PGW, Eric Kettunen has been promoted to VP of Marketing, focusing on current client publishers and catalog production. Heather Cameron has been promoted to Director of Marketing, reporting to Kettunen, as will Directors of Marketing Tracy Fortini and Sarah Rosenberg. Kevin Votel was promoted to VP, business development, reporting to Rich Freese.
MARCH EVENTS
March 2006 is the tenth anniversary of Small Press Month and is co-sponsored by the Small Press Center and PMA, The Independent Book Publishers Association and CLMP. Additional support has been provided by Book Sense and ABA. For details go to www.smallpressmonth.org.
Book Tech‘s Conference and Expo takes place March 20-22 at the NY Hilton. For information, go to booktechexpo.com
DULY NOTED
From the Chicago Tribune: Gallup finds only 9% of Internet users say they frequently read blogs, with 11% reading them occasionally and 66% never reading them. Those numbers put blog-reading last among Gallup’s measures of 13 common Internet activities. E-mailing ranks first (with 87% of users doing so frequently or occasionally), followed by checking news and weather (72), shopping (52) and making travel plans (also 52).
Crains New York reports that Bookspan agreed to pay $680,000 to settle charges that it made telemarketing calls to tens of thousands of people on the National Do Not Call Registry. The FTC said that Bookspan and companies it hired made more than 100,000 calls to consumers on the national registry from October 2003, when the law went into effect, and August 2004. Bookspan typically made the unwanted phone calls to current or former book club members, attempting to sell them products or re-enroll them in clubs from which they had dropped out, according to the FTC.
