In the June 2008 Issue:

California Love: Agents Don't Need to Live in NYC. They've Got Email (and Great Weather).

If A Tree Falls...

International Best: China Makes a Play at BEA

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FROM PUBLISHING TRENDS (JUNE 2008)

PEOPLE
Just in time for BEA, everyone’s changing jobs: Pam Dorman has left Hyperion to return to Viking Penguin with her own imprint. Doug Whiteman, President of Penguin Young Readers Group, has become EVP of Business Operations for Penguin Group and former Random House EVP and COO Don Weisberg succeeds him as President of Young Readers. Meanwhile, Barbara Marcus, former Scholastic President of trade publishing and distribution has joined Penguin as a strategic advisor. Nigel Portwood has been named EVP for Global Operations.

Debra Dorfman, most recently President and Publisher of Penguin’s Grosset & Dunlap/Price Stern Sloan division, has been named to the newly created position of VP & Publisher, Paperbacks, Cartwheel, and Licensed Publishing, at Scholastic Trade Publishing. Dorfman will report to Ellie Berger while “working closely” with Suzanne Murphy, VP and Group Publisher for the division.

Lots of changes at Random House, starting at the top, with Peter Olson’s departure and Markus Dohle’s arrival. Madeline McIntosh, SVP and Publisher, Random House Audio Publishing Group and Random House Large Print, is relocating to Luxembourg with her family to take a position at Amazon. And Crown Editorial Director Kristin Kiser has moved to Hyperion as VP and Associate Publisher, reporting to newly named President Ellen Archer. Earlier, it was announced that Associate Publisher and Executive Director of Marketing Jane Comins had joined Yale University Press as Publishing and Marketing Director.

Lindley Boegehold (l.boegehold@gmail.com) is leaving Random Custom Media, along with VP, Director Andy Schultz, as the division is closing down.

Dan Figenshu has joined Crown as Director of Business Operations. He was at S&S Children’s, where he was Associate Business Manager. Editor Sarah Knight has left Holt for Crown’s Shaye Areheart Books imprint. And Brett Valley has joined Three Rivers Press as an editor, reporting to Carrie Thornton. Valley was at Gotham Books/Penguin.

Most Watson Guptill employees, including Director of Sales and Marketing Allison Devlin and Director of Publicity Andrea Glickson have relocated to the Random House offices. They report to Lauren Shakely, SVP Publisher of Clarkson Potter, and all are reachable via the Random House e-mail template.

Rhodes will be staying at Nielsen for a couple more weeks to finish up business related to the sale and then will be reachable at arhodes@nyc.rr.com and (917) 587-5375.

Katie Ziga has joined Rodale Books as Executive Director and Business Manager, reporting to Howard Weill, SVP of Finance and Operations. Ziga was Director of Business Operations for the Random House Information Group.

Elena Blanco is joining the Sales department of Adams Media as a Senior Account Executive calling on Barnes and Noble. She was a Children’s National Account Manager for S&S. She succeeds David Epstein, who has been promoted to National Accounts Director. Karen Cooper has been named Publisher. She had been Group MD for F+W.

HarperCollins, which announced the launch of an in-house Internet broadcast studio to create author videos, has hired Marisa Benedetto, formerly of the WSJ, to run the studio as Executive Producer, reporting to Ana Maria Allessi, VP, Publisher, HarperMedia.

Doug Grad will start the Doug Grad Literary Agency. He had been at HarperCollins.

Jonathan Merkh, VP Publisher of Guideposts Books, has left the company. Merkh, formerly publisher of the Nelson Books imprint at Thomas Nelson, joined Guideposts last May as part of the organization’s strategy to expand its retail book operation.

Christina Pecorale is joining S&S as Director of National Accounts, children’s sales. She had been at Random House, where she was one of two national account managers handling Borders Group for the children’s division. SVP of S&S Digital Kate Tentler will leave at the end of June. Meanwhile, Claire Israel, who worked for Tentler, has moved to Rosetta Solutions’ NetGalley. She had been at TurnHere Internet Video and previously, at S&S Digital.

Robin Cruise will take the new position of Publisher of Becker & Mayer’s juvenile book group in mid-July. She was Deputy Publisher/Executive ME of children’s books at Harcourt Trade.

Harry N. Abrams, Inc. has hired Chuck Lang as MD, Abrams UK. Lang will be responsible for theoverall operation and management of Abrams UK. Lang was previously at Langenscheidt Publishing Group, where he was VP of Publishing and Marketing and Director of New Business Development. Prior to that, he spent more than ten years at DK.

Mark Pitts was named VP of Sales for the Americas at Lightning Source. He was previously at Glatfelter Co.

Reka Rubin has joined Harlequin as Manager, Global Subsidiary Rights. She was at Quirk Books.

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES
At S&S, Gary Urda will move over to become VP, Director of Distributor Sales and Retail Marketing. He was in a similar position at the company before becoming associate publisher for Atria in 2005. He takes over from Anne Zafian, who has moved to the company’s children’s division. Sue Fleming has been promoted to VP, Executive Director of Content & Programming at S&S and Radhika Nayak to VP, Director of Product Management. At Free Press, Heidi Metcalfe has been promoted to Senior Publicity Manager.

Vintage Anchor Editor in Chief Marty Asher has moved to Knopf as Editor at Large, acquiring and editing both hardcover and paperback. LuAnn Walther has been promoted to SVP, Editorial Director at Vintage Anchor, reporting to Publisher Anne Messitte. Edward Kastenmeier has been promoted to VP, Executive Editor, as Lexy Bloom and Jennifer Jackson are promoted to senior editor.

Effective June 9, Amanda D’Acierno, Director of Publicity and Marketing, Random House Audio and Listening Library, is appointed VP, Publisher, Random House Audio Publishing and Listening Library. She takes the position that Madeline McIntosh is leaving. Editor in Chief Amy Metsch will report to her.
At Random, Kim Shannon has been promoted to VP, Sales Director, Barnes & Noble. Most recently, she was Sales Director for Borders (BGI). Christine McNamara has joined the National Accounts as VP, Sales Director, Borders Group Inc. and Books-A-Million. Most recently, she was Sales Director for Bantam Dell and the RH Information Group.

At Rodale Books, Beth Lamb has been promoted to Associate VP, Book Marketing, reporting to Karen Rinaldi. Her new responsibilities will include helping to “plan and streamline the publishing process across sales channels and to help plan our publishing programs moving forward.”

Barnes & Noble announced that Jaime Carey, who has served as VP of its Newsstand business, has been promoted to the newly created role of Chief Merchandising Officer. Mr. Carey will assume responsibility for merchandise buying for all departments.

At Harlequin, Dianne Moggy has been named VP Overseas Editorial Strategy and Development, respectively. Stepping into Moggy’s former role of Editorial Director, Single Titles is Margaret Marbury. Valerie Gray has been promoted to Executive Editor, Mira Books.

At Grand Central, Ben Greenberg has been promoted to Editor.

Jennifer Klonsky has been promoted to Editorial Director of Simon Pulse. Jen has been with Pulse since 2006, when the two branches of Pulse merged. Prior to that, she was Executive Editor for Simon Pulse and Aladdin under Ellen Krieger.

Taline Najarian has been promoted to Director of Special Sales at Scholastic. She was previously Associate Director. Deena Fleming will move to Scholastic on June 9 as Designer, Cartwheel & Licensed Books. For the last three years Deena has worked with Tangerine Press, an imprint of Scholastic.

Lori Ames has been named EVP of Jane Wesman Public Relations (www.wesmanpr.com). Lauren Banyar Reich has been named Publicity Manager. She was previously a Senior Publicist. Felicia Sinusas has been named Publicity Manager. She joined the firm two years ago from St. Martin’s Press. Amy Franklin joins the agency as a Senior Publicist. She was most recently with HarperCollins.

DULY NOTED
Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group will be renamed The Doubleday Publishing Group. Its URL is now www.doubleday.com.

The Mercantile Library has been sold and the building has closed. The Library will relocate at some future point. The Web site has no information about the sale, closing, or move.

UPCOMING EVENTS
The Books for Kids Foundation is hosting an event on July 11 at the Pink Elephant, 527 West 27th St. For details, go to www.booksforkids.org.

Poet’s House 13th annual Poetry Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge takes place Monday, June 9. Visit www.poetshouse.org.

On June 26 at 6:30 PM, Mark Strand and Honor Moore kick off Mad. Sq. Reads 2008, Madison Square Park Conservancy’s free summer reading series.

IN MEMORIAM
Leda Liounis, Director, Inventory Management & Special Projects at Sterling, died on May 27, 2008. Her death was announced by Sterling CEO Marcus Leaver. There will be a memorial service, with information to come.
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Read other articles from this issue (June 2008 ):

California Love: Agents Don't Need to Live in NYC. They've Got Email (and Great Weather).

If A Tree Falls...

International Best: China Makes a Play at BEA

Bookview

Publishing Trends is a subscription based newsletter. Sometimes we post our stories with the issue. Sometimes not. To get the all of the articles listed above subscribe today!

©2008 Publishing Trends