PEOPLE
Kristina Peterson leaves Random Children’s to take over as President of S&S’s Children’s division. . . . Meanwhile Vivian Antonangeli has left Reader’s Digest Children’s, following the arrival of Harold Clarke — previously President of RH — as VP Publisher New Market Development for Global Books and Home Entertainment. Antonangeli, who had been GM and President of the division, is reachable at 917 744-2955. Rosanna Hansen, who had been Publisher, has also left the company. . . . Paul Golob will be joining Public Affairs as executive editor in September, after less than three months as an editor on the New York Times Op-Ed page. Prior to that he was at Free Press and Basic. And speaking of FP, congrats to Bill Shinker, newly named VP and Publisher. . . . Warner’s Anita Diggs has joined Ballantine’s One World imprint as Senior Editor, reporting to Maureen O’Neal, and replacing Cheryl Woodruff, who has resigned
. . . . After 20 years, Mark Magowan, VP of Abbeville, is leaving to join Abrams after Labor Day as Associate Publisher, fueling rumors that his former employer is on the block. Meanwhile, his new employer is the likely purchaser of the assets of STC, Golden Turtle, and selected Smithmark titles.
The past month has brought a lot of change to media coverage of books: David Kirkpatrick has begun his tenure at the NYT, Elizabeth Manus has moved out of the New York Observer offices and is now on general assignment, and Celia McGee has moved to general assignment at the Daily News. Paul Colford from Newsday has replaced her on the book beat and will also write on the electronic and virtual media.
Quick takes: Tom Spain and Jackie Farber are out at Dell/Delacorte. The former had been Maeve Binchy’s editor, but when Carole Baron went to Dutton, the author followed her there. . . . Marcy Posner and Dan Strone have both left the NY office of the William Morris Agency. . . . Natalie Chapman has left Discovery Books, where she was Publishing Director. Dorothee Grisebach, Editor in Chief of Droemer Knaur, has been let go as part of the latest Holtzbrinck re-organization. . . . Publishing News reports that HarperCollins UK Sales and Marketing Director David North has been named MD of its trade division, Pan Macmillan. He replaces Ian Chapman, who left at the end of last year to head up S&S. Meanwhile, James Kellow, Marketing Director at Fourth Estate, is leaving to take up the new position of UK Sales and Marketing Director at S&S UK.
Erin McHugh, former Executive Vice President, Executive Creative Director, and partner at Spier New York, has joined the Empire State Pride Agenda, New York’s statewide gay and lesbian political advocacy organization, as Director of Member & Institutional Support. She served on the Pride Agenda’s Board of Directors for most of the past decade. Niko Pfund, Director and Editor-in-Chief, has left for OUP to become Academic Publisher. Pfund started his publishing career at OUP, as an editorial assistant. And Chris Rogers has been appointed College Editorial Director. He was previously Director, New Business Development for Wiley.
Nina Hoffman has been named EVP of the National Geographic Society and President of the Books and School publishing group. She was formerly SVP Publishing. . . . Michael Stephenson, currently VP, Editor in Chief of Doubleday Direct’s Specialty Clubs, has been given the same titles for New Book Development at BookSpan, overseeing book development for all clubs.
Motorbooks Publishing, a piece of the recently spun off SF Chronicle publishing group, has made the following appointments: Mike Hejny, formerly VP, Merchandising at Barnes & Noble, has been named VP of Sales and Marketing; Ben Jones is VP, Direct Marketing, formerly of Heritage House, Carl Fazio is VP and CFO, formerly McGraw-Hill Medical Division, and Brad Savola is VP and CTO, formerly of Fair Isaac database marketing.
DEALS
It’s been a big book summer, with the latest million-plus deal just announced: Sun Microsystems co-founder and chief scientist Bill Joy’s book has been sold by Kathy Robbins to Penguin’s Rick Kot for $1.6 million +. . . . It is based on Joy’s April 2000 Wired magazine article, “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us.” Robbins was already doing well in this period we used to label as the summer doldrums: she recently sold David Denby’s book to Little, Brown for $500k +.
MEDIA
What’s with this increasing interest on the part of all media — print, tv, radio and, of course, electronic — in books? It’s a barrage, with endless stories on individual authors (Rowling, Fox (Michael J.), Rubin (Robert), Welch (Jack)); new e-initiatives (iPublish, iWrite, I’m Stephen King); bestseller lists, unread bestsellers, pre-pubb’ed bestsellers (HP #5) — and on and on and on. Even the staid Economist has announced that, beginning in September, they will expand the number of pages devoted to books and will run those weekly, rather than the current ten times a year. And, the new weekly section — now called “Moreover” — will be renamed “Books and Arts.”
In an interview in Gannett’s The Review Press IMG’s Mark Reiter speculates that German and Japanese rights to Jack Welch’s book will each go for “north of $1 million,” and denies that his commission for the $7.1 million deal was a cool million. He also confides that within the decade he “hopes to find himself writing books full-time,” but wants to represent one particular client before he leaves agenting. The name? Warren Buffett.
DULY NOTED
Come Fall, publishers will have to choose between three publishing conferences, all scheduled within a week of each other. Reed’s ePub Expo will be held Oct. 31–Nov. 1 at the Millennium, while Internet World’s e-Book World takes place at the Marriott Marquis on Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 6–7. The former will focus on the management, distribution and production of digital content. (See PT page 8 for details.) Seybold is holding what purports to be a publishing show in San Francisco at the end of August. It is, however, weighted heavily in the direction of technology, though there are sessions on Digital Rights and Digital Asset Management, ebooks, etc. Click on www.seyboldseminars.com.
Word comes to us that the 25th annual University of Denver Publishing Institute opened on July 10th on the University of Denver campus with 91 students — all college graduates. The program was co-founded by Elizabeth Geiser and includes as instructors Elisabeth Scharlatt of Algonquin Books, Jane Isay of Harcourt Trade, Arnold Dolin, formerly of Penguin, and others. At a gala dinner at the Fourth Story Restaurant (atop the Tattered Cover), six graduates of the program spoke of their careers, among them Tari Warwick (vp, Perseus Books Group), Meg Ruley (Jane Rotrosen Agency), Jeanne Martinet (author of The Artful Dodge), and Reid Hester (editor with Mayfield Publishing).
PARTIES
Overlook’s party for cutting edge novelist Brad Gooch was held by and at Diane von Furstenberg’s loft-cum-showroom (a family emergency called Ms. von F back to Belgium) and included Barry Diller, Jonathan Burnham, Jay McInerney, Mary McFadden, fashion photographer Carter Smith, Bret Easton Ellis (a co-host), and other trendy novelists such as Ben Neihart, Christopher Bram, and Fred Tuten.
IN MEMORIAM
We sadly note the passing of Workman‘s Sally Kovalchick on July 15th.
