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Executive Moves, Book
Deals and More Industry News
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (DECEMBER 2001)
People
Congrats to Phyllis
Grann — and Random House — who have finally
tied the knot in what is perhaps the last good news
of ’01? Word is that not all publishers there are equally
excited, leading to speculation about whether the last
card has yet been played.
Back at Penguin Putnam, Adrian Zackheim has
hired Bill Brazell as Senior Editor of his new
imprint, Portfolio Books. Brazell had worked
at Industry Standard, and before that at Wired.
. . . Following Vivendi Publishing CEO
Agnes Touraine’s announcement of Bertil Hessel’s
“sabbatical” as the head of LKC in London, Houghton’s
Wendy Strothman will assume all Kingfisher
responsibilities. Meanwhile, Director of Special Markets
and US Rights Penelope Chaplin has been named
VP, Publisher N. America for Kingfisher. Layoffs at
Kingfisher include CFO Tim Gelatt, Marketing
Manager Joyce Stein, and Sales and Marketing’s
Lesley Moseley. . . . Layoffs continue around
town, though some more publicly than others: Abrams’
cutbacks have been ongoing since the announced departures
of Mark Magowan and Alan Rutsky (now up
to twenty-five, including PR Director Liz Robbins,
longtime Rights Director Pam Harwood, Production
Director Shun Yamamoto, the entire contracts,
as well as photographic rights departments, plus members
of the foreign rights, editorial, design and marketing
departments). Meanwhile, recruiters are searching for
a new CEO for the company. Back to other cutbacks: Questia
has shrunk from 280 at its height, to 68 (though Linda
Cunningham, Joana Jebsen, and Justin Wolske
remain in New York, and a major direct mail and TV campaign
has just been launched), and Andrews McMeel is
closing a warehouse and terminating 110 positions, because
it will outsource its distribution. These follow layoffs
at DK (US and UK), Random Reference and
Children’s, Rodale, and Tuttle. Then,
of course, there are the closings — of Zoland
Books, a 15-year-old company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts
(and publisher of Ha Jin’s collection of stories,
which won the Pen/Faulkner award for First Fiction),
and of Reciprocal, as well as the bankruptcy
of netLibrary.
Bobbi
Mark has been named Chief Marketing and Development
Officer for Acumen Fund, a not-for-profit with
an innovative model for international philanthropy.
Seed funding is from the Rockefeller and Cisco
Foundations. Mark was formerly at RR Donnelley
and before that, at BOMC and Bantam. .
. . Suzanne Oaks, last member of the original
Broadway team, has left the company. . . . Longtime
club editor Ruth Kogan is one of those laid off
at Bookspan. . . . Larry Hughes, who remained
at Morrow following the sale to HarperCollins,
will retire at the end of the year. . . . Variety
(via publisherslunch) reports that Joe Veltre
has joined Talk Miramax Books as an editor at
large while also working for Miramax as director of
development. Veltre was briefly at HarperCollins, and
before that, at St. Martin’s. . . . Colin
Robinson, longtime MD of Verso until recently,
has been named publisher of The New Press.
In museum publications news: After 14 years, Ann
Lucke is leaving the Metropolitan Museum’s
Publications department to join The Getty in
the same managing editorial position. She is filling
the position recently vacated by Mark Greenberg,
who has been named Editor-in-Chief. In the meantime
the Getty is looking to fill a newly created operations
position, and the Met has hired Susan Bresnan,
also in the new position of Image Acquisitions Manager.
Promotions: Seth Radwell was promoted to President
of Bookspan’s newly created Marketing and Editorial
Group. He had been President and Chief Executive Officer
of booksonline, the Internet division of Bookspan.
. . . Carole Baron was appointed President
of G.P. Putnam’s Sons. . . . Liate Stehlik
was promoted to Associate Publisher at Pocket Books.
She was previously Publishing Director. Warner Bros.
Consumer Products announced that Michael Harkavy
was promoted to SVP, international content and creative
affairs. He was previously VP, Publisher, Kids! WB Music
and Interactive Entertainment.
Duly
Noted
A colloquium co-sponsored by the Folger Library
was held in Washington, DC on Nov. 8-10 to discuss the
“impact of the digital medium on libraries, publishers,
and society.” By 2020, the 40 participants (from Bertelsmann,
Library of Congress, etc.) predicted, printed
books and journals would not disappear but would co-exist
with the newer electronic forms of publishing, though
the roles and functions of publishers and libraries
will change radically by that time. Meanwhile, as universal
access to knowledge would become theoretically possible,
“Host-country infrastructure and intellectual property
rights will be critical to the worldwide adoption of
electronic publishing as the de-facto communication
standard.” Glad we got that straight.
•
Books for a Better Life announces the lineup for
its Feb. 12 Awards Ceremony, when Deepak Chopra
will be inducted in the BBL Hall of Fame. ABC’s
Meredith Vieira and HBO’s Karen Duffy
will be on hand to help emcee. Hats off to publishing
veteran Scott Manning, who founded the awards,
and continues his pro bono leadership of them.
•
“Publishing Predictions — Past and Present Visions
of the Future,” presented by Small Press Center
and Publishers Weekly, which was originally
scheduled for Monday, Nov. 12, has been postponed
until Small Press Month, March 2002. Email info@smallpress.org
for details.
• In the November 19 edition of iMarketing News,
Al Ries and Laura Ries, marketing strategists,
make a case for Amazon to scale back its business
to the core — books, music, and videos, which account
for 58% of its business and all of its profit. And if
it doesn’t? “Make no mistake about it, Amazon is headed
for history’s scrap heap.” They argue, however, that
Jeff Bezos would have a hard time retrenching,
after positioning himself as an online department store.
What the Ries’ really argue for, though, is brand segmentation.
Amazon should move its other categories under other
brand names, like Levi’s did with Dockers, and
Black & Decker did with its professional
line of tools. Otherwise, they warn, Amazon could end
up the Polaroid of the web (go to www.imarketingnews.com).
• Bloomsbury is publishing a “Celebratory Edition”
of Philosopher’s Stone, to mark the sales of
113+ million Harry Potter books worldwide.
And that’s before taking into account sales from the
movie tie-ins.
December
Dates
There isn’t much going
on this month, other than the big ones: Hannukah
(begins December 9), Christmas, Kwanzaa
(begins December 26), and New Year’s (start whenever
you wish).
• Harry Evans will take on Jerome Charyn,
author of Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins:
Ping-Pong and the Art of Staying Alive, in a game
of — you guessed — ping pong, on December 6 at 6:30
pm at the Manhattan Table Tennis Club, 2628 Broadway.
Contact rmorse@morse-partners.com
for details.
• Michael Cader’s next December 11 Live Lunch
event takes place December 11. The topic is LOOKING
TO 2002, and panelists include David Kirkpatrick
of the New York Times, Larry Kirshbaum of
AOL Time Warner Trade Publishing, Carl Lennertz
of BookSense, and New York Magazine’s
Michael Wolff.
Parties
November was the big party month. First there was
Book-of-the-Month’s 75th anniversary party at the Waldorf
Astoria on November 7. Then the Mercantile Library
hosted the second annual Clifton Fadiman Awards
at its gala on November 13. Shirley Hazzard’s
Transit of Venus won the $5000 award, which is sponsored
by Bookspan. On November 14 the National Book Awards
took place, with Steve Martin hosting. Then,
on November 15 NBF Executive Director Neil Baldwin
was the guest of honor at a party celebrating his new
book, Henry Ford and the Jews, published by Peter
Osnos’ Public Affairs.
Mazeltov
To Context Books’
Beau Friedlander and Melissa Breyer on November
8th on the arrival of Ella Beatrice Friedlander.
In
Memoriam
Michael Hoffman,
Publisher and Executive Director of Aperture,
died on November 23. He had been at Aperture for 35
years.
©2001
Publishing Trends
