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Executive
Moves, Book Deals, and More Industry News
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (APRIL 2003)
People
Random House has
offered a “Voluntary Retirement Window of Opportunity”
to “most” employees who have been with the company at
least five years, and are 50 years old or older. The
email offer was made on March 19 and employees must
notify HR by mid-May. Many people clicked the Delete
button before reading the memo, but at least one employee
accepted the offer within two days of its being made.
Meanwhile, layoffs continue, as it was announced this
week that Random Value has folded its sales team into
the Random sales group, and Brad Parliman, Horace
Whyte, and VP Proprietary Publishing Ron
Palmer will leave the company. Lynn Bond continues
to oversee RHVP.
Michael Friedman has left Barnes & Noble
Publishing to pursue new interests. He came to B&N
with its purchase of Friedman/Fairfax in 1999.
He may be reached at (917) 696-7955 or MFPG2@earthlink.net.
. . Cathy Fox, VP Director Subsidiary Rights
for Putnam, has left the company (email cjillfox@aol.com).
Leigh Butler, SVP, Director of Sub. Rights for
the Penguin Group, will take over her responsibilities.
. . Hyperion’s Leigh Haber has been named
Editor-at-Large, and will now spend part of her time
developing a DVD magazine.
John
Harris has been named VP, Director of Finance, Planning
& Operations for Houghton’s Trade & Reference
Division. He succeeds Ellen Faran, who left to
become Director of MIT Press. Harris was most
recently CFO of Hungry Minds.
Following close on the heels of Neal Goff’s
resignation, Scholastic announced the appointment
of Joe Reynolds as President of Scholastic Library
Publishing, effective immediately. Reynolds was previously
President and CEO of ProQuest Information and
Learning, which provides services to school and public
libraries. Goff may be reached at (917) 541-4034 or
nealgoff@aol.com.
L. Spencer Humphrey has also left Scholastic,
where she was overseeing licensed characters, including
Barney.
More sales moves this month: S&S has promoted
National Accounts Manager Mary Beth Thomas to
the position of Director of Distribution Clients Services,
replacing Gary Fitzgerald. He can be reached
at (732) 257-2541 or gjfitzgerald@hotmail.com.
. . Bill Wolfsthal has been named Director of
Specialty Retail at Abrams/STC. He was
most recently at Overlook. . . Sabrina Farber
has gone to Bloomsbury as Sales & Marketing
Director. She was most recently Director of National
Accounts for the Crown Group, at Random House.
Yulia Borodyanskaya has been named Sub. Rights Manager
for Avalon Publishing Group, working out of the
New York office. She was previously at Newmarket
Press. . . Katie Hall began her new job as Harcourt
Senior Editor. Hall had previously been at Random House.
McGraw-Hill announced two appointments in its Education
divisions: William Oldsey has been named EVP
McGraw-Hill Education, replacing Julie McGee,
and reporting to Henry Hirschberg, who
has just been named President.
As noted in PW, Bloomberg Press has streamlined
its reporting structure, and John Crutcher has
been appointed to the newly created position of Publisher,
with Editorial, Marketing, and Sub. Rights reporting
to him. He reports to Bill Inman, Editor-in-Chief
of Bloomberg Publishing. To elaborate on their announcement,
Christine Miles has moved over from Bloomberg
Personal Finance magazine, which closed last year,
to the Press, as Senior Editor. Kathleen Peterson
has been named Executive Editor for an as yet unnamed
new professional finance and investing line that will
be launched in 2004. Editorial Director Jared Kieling
(who recently brought in The Economist books),
now reports to Crutcher. Bloomberg Press, which was
founded in 1996, has had “continued profit and revenue
growth” since its founding.
Promotions
Rebecca Mancini has
been promoted from Associate Director of Subsidiary
Rights to Director of Children’s Rights for Houghton
Mifflin’s Trade & Reference Division. . .
Greer Hendricks, Senior Editor of S&S’s Atria
imprint, has been promoted to VP. Jen Bergstrom
has been promoted to Associate Publisher of S&S
Children’s, and EVP, Publisher Robin Corey was
given responsibility for two more imprints
. . . Melody Guy, who runs Villard’s Strivers
Row, has been given the added responsibility for Ballantine’s
One World.
April
Dates
The Feminist Press celebrates its 33rd year
with a gala dinner on April 7. AAP’s Pat Schroeder
and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi are the honorary
dinner chairs, and Carol Jenkins is the program
host. There will be a tribute to Tillie Olsen,
as well as an awards ceremony. Call Lorelei Enterprises
at (212) 838-2660 for information.
•
NYU’s Center for Publishing is offering a
“Scandinavian Literature in Translation” day on April
24th. The focus will be on Sweden, and major Scandinavian
publishers — along with American publishers who buy
translations (New Press’s Andre Schiffrin,
Texere’s Myles and Lee Thompson,
etc.) — will be featured on a series of panels. The
fee is $75. Contact pub.center@nyu.edu
or call (212) 790-3232 for details.
• April is National Poetry Month and City
Lore and Poets House, in collaboration with
the Bowery Poetry Club, will celebrate “A Woodstock
for Words” at the People’s Poetry Gathering, April 11-13.
The 2003 Theme is ballads and epics, with poets from
Bosnia, Lebanon, Morocco, and Pakistan, and a Grand
Peace Reading finale. For more information contact City
Lore at (800) 333-5982. Also check The Academy of
American Poets web site, www.poets.org,
for their events calendar.
Duly
Noted
In the ongoing saga of publications about books,
which started with the NYT’s article on Book
Magazine’s retrenchment under the “Barnes
& Noble Presents” banner, AMS’s Book
Street USA has ceased publication. It had first
been inserted into various newspapers including USA
Today, and boasted a circulation of “almost
2 million,” through 41 newspapers. A later effort to
make it a stand-alone was abandoned, and the focus will
now be on Pages, the bookstore publication. It
has a circulation of more than 7,000, according to its
ad sales department.
Meanwhile, rival Book Page has teamed up with
Books-A-Million to deliver a customized edition
in a different, Parade-like format, and with
a cover chosen by BAM. The customized March edition
has George W. on the cover, while the generic
version has Jim Patterson. A custom version is
being developed for BookSense members, with yet
another cover, and the BookSense bestseller list on
the back cover. Book Page also reaches 3,000
public libraries.
•
Barbara Tolley tells Publishing Trends that
Livre de poche celebrated its fiftieth anniversary
with a reception hosted by Jean-Louis Lisimachio,
Président Directeur Général d’Hachette Livre
and Dominique Goust, Directeur Général du Livre
de Poche at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris
on March 4. An exhibition with iconic covers will run
for two months at the museum.
•
Lynn Goldberg is the lucky winner of veteran editor
Larry Ashmead’s rolodex, which was auctioned
off to support Books for a Better Life. Ashmead, who
is retiring from HarperCollins after 43 years in publishing,
was inducted into the BBL Hall of Fame in 2002.
•
Carol Fass Publicity and Public Relations has announced
the launch of Fass Speakers Bureau (FSB) in Spring
2003. Those who have expressed interest in being a part
of FSB include Michael B. Oren, author of Six
Days of War; Daniel Levitas, who wrote The
Terrorist Next Door; and Phyllis Chesler,
Ph.D, author of Women and Madness, and
the forthcoming New Anti-Semitism.
Mazel
Tov
Little, Brown’s
Asst. Publicity Director Heather Fain and
Nickelodeon’s SVP Consumer Products, Leigh
Anne Brodsky are among Ad Age’s “Entertainment
Marketers of the Year.” Fain is credited with publicizing
The Lovely Bones and Brodsky, with licensing
SpongeBob SquarePants.
In
Memoriam
Miranda DeKay will
hold a memorial service for her husband George
on April 17 at 7:30 at the Century association in the
Gallery. Tim Seldes will be the emcee. There
will be speakers, music, and then a reception in the
Billiard Room.
©2003
Publishing Trends
