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.
• 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.
