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Executive Moves, Book Deals, and More Industry News
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (MARCH 2004)
People
Changes
in the far-flung HarperCollins realm: Carl
Raymond has left ReganBooks to go to DK
as Director of Marketing. Claudia Riemer Boutote
has joined HarperSanFrancisco as Senior Director
of Publicity. She was most recently at Workman
as Marketing and Publicity Director. In New York, Mimi
Kayden has been named Marketing Consultant at HarperCollins
Children’s Books reporting to Diane Naughton
and Susan Katz. Victoria Stapleton has
been hired as Library Services Manager, from S&S.
Meanwhile, HC announced that Josh Marwell has
been appointed President of Sales. George Bick,
SVP Sales Morrow/Avon, has been promoted to SVP Sales
and now also oversees Field Sales. Brian Grogan,
VP, Director of Distributor Sales, has been named SVP
Distributor Sales, reporting to Bick. Nina Olmsted,
VP of National Accounts, has been promoted to SVP. Mark
Hillesheim, currently National Accounts Manager,
has been named VP, Director of National Accounts and
Backlist Sales for the General Books Group, reporting
to both Bick and Olmsted. In a subsequent announcement,
Carl Lennertz, VP Marketing, has been named to
the newly created position of VP Independent Retailing,
reporting to Marwell. Jeanette Zwart will become
VP Sales, Eastern Region; Kristin Bowers has
been promoted to VP Sales for the Western Region; both
report to Bick. Charlie Trachtenbarg has been
named Manager of Sales Analysis. He had previously been
Regional Sales Manager.
Ex-S&S people are finding jobs around town:
Bill Seibert was named Senior Director of Operations
at Rodale. He was most recently VP Director of
International Finance and Operations at S&S. Alan
Smagler, who was most recently at S&S Children’s,
has formed Smagler Associates, providing Executive Coaching
and Management Consulting services. Smagler can be reached
at (516) 295-5180 or coachsmag@aol.com.
And Karen Weitzman (kweitzman@aol.com),
former VP of Foreign Rights at S&S has agreed
to act as the representative for Big Apple Tuttle-Mori
Agency for China, which was previously handled by
the Greenburger Agency. She joins longstanding
U.K. reps, Anne Martyn and Nina Martyn,
as well as French rep Marie-Pierre Robert.
Rich Kelley has moved from a consulting role to
a permanent position as Director of Marketing and Membership
for the NY Academy of Sciences. He was most recently
SVP for Bookspan’s Computer and Science Clubs.
In other Bookspan news, Joe Pittman has moved
to the company’s Venus and Doubleday Book clubs, reporting
to Sharon Fantera. Pittman was most recently
at NAL, and has published two novels.
Nader
Darehshori, previously CEO of Houghton Mifflin,
has founded supplemental ed publisher Cambium Learning
Inc. … Neal Goff has left Columbia House,
where he had been consulting, to become EVP of Marketing
at Weekly Reader Corp., reporting to the new
President, Emily Swenson. … Natalie Kaire
has gone to Clarkson Potter as Editor. She was
most recently at Hyperion.
Ellen Beal has been named Editorial Director at
Running Press. She was Director of Product Development
at Berlitz International. Jennifer Kasius
recently joined the company as a Senior Editor,
from Crown. As of the end of March Running
Press co-founder Buz Teacher will work part-time
for the company, and CEO David Steinberger announced
the new reporting structure: Executive Director of Sales
John Whalen will become Group VP and Publisher
for Running Press, dividing responsibilities for the
division with COO Al Struzinski. Both will report
to Steinberger. Matty Goldberg has been
reassigned to Group VP and Director of Sales, reporting
to new Perseus Group COO Joe Mangan.
Meanwhile, Associate Publisher Carlo DeVito has
left Running Press for Penguin, where he will
become Publisher of a new, yet-to-be-named, multi-faceted
division, which will feature “book-plus” products, hardcover
and paperback books, as well as other merchandise. And
Counterpoint Publicist Patty Garcia has
gone to Viking.
Publishers Lunch reports that Google has
“bolstered their efforts to develop the beta feature
Google Print into a major repository of online book
text with the hiring of Tom Turvey.” He had been
at ebrary, and before that, BN.com.
In retailing, Vin Altruda, who has been President
of Borders international stores since 1997, has
become President of Borders stores worldwide, assuming
the responsibilities of Tami Heim, who had been
president of Borders’ US stores for the last four years.
Heim has resigned. Tanya Rojas has become B&N’s
Director of Community Relations, replacing Judy Collins,
who has left the company. Rojas previously worked as
Senior Director of Communications at L’Oreal.
Mary Carlomagno, who worked on marketing and
sponsorships, has left the company.
Promotions
Geoff
Shandler has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief at
Little, Brown, a position previously held by
Publisher Michael Pietsch. … Eileen Bishop
Kreit has been promoted to VP Publisher at Puffin,
succeeding Tracy Tang who has left the company.
… Philip Turner has been promoted from Executive
Editor to Editor-in-Chief of Carroll & Graf Publishers,
as well as to Senior Director of the Avalon Group.
March
Events
Romantic
Times Booklovers Convention will be in
NY March 24-28 and brings writers, publishers, agents,
and fans together. Romance editors attending include
Bantam’s Wendy Mcauley and Harlequin’s
Isabel Swift. Agents include Anne Hawkins
(Paul Reynolds), Nancy Coffey, and
Meredith Bernstein. More than 100 writers will
attend, with Barbara Taylor Bradford as a headliner.
Registration is required for all options except the
book fair. Go to www.romantictimes.com
and click the NY Convention link or call (718) 237-1097
ext. 10.
•
March is the eighth annual Small Press Month,
organized by Small Press Center and Publishers
Marketing Association (PMA). The theme for 2004
is “Let Every Voice Be Heard! Support America’s Independent
Small Publishers,” and events include The Small Press
Book Fair at the Small Press Center, 20 W. 44, March
27-28. Over 200 independent book and magazine publishers
take part. Admission is free. For info call (212) 764-7021
or visit www.smallpress.org.
(Meanwhile AAP has announced a national conference
for independent publishers, “2005 and Beyond,” on September
10 in New York. Contact Anne Garringer at agarringer@publishers.org.)
Duly
Noted
The 100th anniversary of
Theodor Seuss Geisel’s birthday is on March 2,
and Random House has created the “Seussentennial”
to celebrate it. A yearlong tribute to Dr. Seuss, “Seussentennial:
A Century of Imagination” began with a 40 city tour
and includes a year-long rotating exhibit at the Geisel
Library at the University of California at San
Diego. Meanwhile, NEA’s Read Across America Day
will be celebrated as usual on March 2.
•
While on the subject, The Council of Literary Magazines
and Presses (CLMP) writes about changes at the National
Endowment for the Arts. NEA literature specialist Amy
Stolls is quoted saying the NEA “did get an increase
in funds” for 2005. She says NEA guidelines are now
only available online at www.nea.gov.
Stolls is available at (202) 682-5771.
•
To celebrate its eight years of existence, comScore
re-released the January 1996 Media Metrix Website rankings
alongside the January 2004 ranking of the top Internet
properties, together with some interesting stats: The
number of Internet users has grown from about 20 million
in 1996 to 152 million in 2004; while broadband was
almost unknown in 1996, today 35-plus percent of home
Internet users have broadband; e-commerce was almost
non-existent in 1996. Spending in 2004 will easily surpass
$100 billion. The top sites of 1996: Aol.com;
Webcrawler.com; Netscape.com. The top
sites of 2004: Yahoo! Sites; MSN-Microsoft
Sites; Time Warner Network.
In January alone, 83.5 million Americans, or 55% of
Internet users, visited either eBay (ranked fourth)
or Amazon (sixth). On that note, Kosmo Kalliarekos
of the consultancy The Parthenon Group stated
at the recent AAP meeting that a used book is “ flipped”
online five times — a number that “will doubtless expand.”
©2004
Publishing Trends
