PEOPLE
John Kilcullen, previously CEO of Hungry Minds, has been named President of VNU’s Music and Literary Group and Publisher of Billboard. He will also oversee Bookseller and Kirkus Reviews, Music & Media, and Airplay Monitor.
As dissected daily in the NYT, Daniel Menaker was named SVP and Editor-in-Chief of the Random House editorial imprints. (Some have noted that, given the NY Observer’s recent piece on Stuart Applebaum’s alleged influence at Random, it was curious that the announcement was sent out from Centrello’s email address, with Carol Schneider listed as the PR contact — rather than from Applebaum’s office, as would usually be the case in a high profile personnel announcement. Meanwhile, word is that some literary titles from the Ballantine Group may end up on Little Random’s list.)
Alan Rutsky has been named CFO of Rizzoli. He had most recently held that position at Abrams. . . . Dick McCullough has left Millbrook, which has just received a new round of investment, perhaps as a result of Roaring Brook Press’s spanking new Caldecott Award.
Charlie Winton was feted at one of three farewell parties on February 26, as he officially “retires” from PGW to devote his time to Avalon. A search for his successor is under way. . . . Steve Fischer has been named Director of Sales & Marketing for ThorsonsElement — the Boston-based division of HarperCollinsUK — reporting to Publisher Greg Brandenburgh. He was most recently at Tuttle. . . . Randy Charles has been named SVP of Customer Relationship Marketing for Rodale Inc. He had most recently been at Times Mirror. And Cathy Lee Gruhn, previously at S&S, has been named Director of Publicity for Rodale Books. She will report to Associate Publisher Cindy Ratzlaff.
Bill Strachan has left Columbia University Press, where he had been President and Director. Three other major university press directorships have changed leadership in the past year, including MIT, Yale, and California. CFO Rebecca Schrader will be acting President until a new head is named
. . . . As also noted elsewhere, Gordon Macomber has been named CEO of Encyclopedia Britannica’s Merriam-Webster. He was President and CEO of NYUonline and earlier, President of Macmillan Reference.
Jessica Craig has left Franklin & Siegal and is joining Burnes & Clegg as Director of Foreign Rights. . . . Tammy Johnston has left Candlewick Press, where she was Associate Publisher and VP Sales & Marketing.
The Perseus Publishing Group’s reorganization continues. Perseus Publisher David Goehring, Associate Publisher Elizabeth Carduff, (elizabethcarduff@aol.com), and Executive Editor Nicholas Philipson have been laid off, and now word is that Nancy Maron, Director of Academic and Library Marketing, has also been let go.
As reported elsewhere Carl Lennertz, who created the ABA’s Book Sense program, is leaving the association to take the position of VP, Marketing for the HarperCollins imprint. Mark Nichols becomes Director of Book Sense Marketing, taking over the bulk of Lennertz’s job.
The rough winter has prompted some relocations: Hilary Liftin has moved to LA, to break into television writing. CAA is her agent. Liftin’s book, Candy & Me: A Love Story, was bought by Leslie Meredith at Free Press last summer. And Lisa Kitei, formerly SVP Corporate Communications/Public Relations at Cahners, has moved to Florida. She may be reached at lkitei@aol.com.
PROMOTIONS
Jane von Mehren has been named a Vice President of Penguin Books and will continue as Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher, overseeing the editorial direction of the Penguin trade paperback list, while acquiring books for Viking.
MARCH DATES
March is Small Press Month, and the Small Press Center has multiple celebrations planned, including a panel on “Today’s Best Book Promotion Options — Offline” on March 20. Panelists include PR vet Carol Fass; Brian Jud, President of Book Marketing Works; GMA’s Patty Neger; and Donna Woolfolk Cross. The event takes place from 6 – 8 at the Small Press Center on 20 W. 44th. For information go to www.smallpress.org.
NYU’s first Management Forum for Independent Publishers will take place on April 4 – 6. Speakers include Patricia Bostelman from B&N; Kelley Maier, SVP Product Management & Marketing at Ingram; Walker’s George Gibson; and Cindy Cunningham from Amazon. Early bird registration is available until March 14. Contact Heidi Johnson at the NYU Center for Publishing: (212) 790-3236 or heidi.johnson@nyu.edu.
Four top publishing people are panelists on “Powerful Women in Publishing,” sponsored by the NYC chapter of Women’s National Book Association on March 11 from 6 – 8 pm: Susan Peterson Kennedy, President, Penguin Group (USA); Barbara Marcus, President Children’s Books, Scholastic; Alison M. Lazarus, President of Sales, Holtzbrinck; and Maddy Dychtwald, author. Location: Time Life Building, 8th Floor Auditorium, 1271 6th Ave @ 50th. For information on WNBA-NYC, see www.wnba-nyc.org.
DULY NOTED
comScore reported total online annual sales, across all categories including travel, of $73.2 billion in 2002, up 38 percent versus 2001. Total e-commerce sales, excluding auctions, were $10.9 billion, up 25 percent versus the year-ago period. According to comScore, this growth was driven primarily by online travel sales, “reflecting a continued shift in travel spending from offline to online channels.” Non-travel sales have turned in lower growth of 16 percent year-to-date. Books — which have one of the longest and most successful online sales histories — were up a more modest 5%, to $2.285 billion.
• Two very different books about books by industry insiders will hit the shelves this year. Overwhelmed readers will discover what overwhelmed editors have known forever: that there is an alternative to what Sara Nelson terms the “Clean Plate Book Club.” In So Many Books, So Little Time, coming out this fall (Putnam), she writes that “Allowing yourself to stop reading a book — at page 25, 50 or even, less frequently, a few chapters from the end — is a rite of passage in a reader’s life, the literary equivalent of a bar mitzvah or a communion, the moment at which you look at yourself and announce: Today I am an adult. I can make my own decisions.” So far Susan Isaacs and Kurt Andersen have sent in boffo blurbs. . . . Meanwhile, Jacqueline Deval, Publisher of Hearst Books and a publicist manqué, has written Publicize Your Book: An Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book the Attention It Deserves, that’s coming out in April from Perigee. This is her second book (her first was the novel Reckless Appetites).
• Michael Cader is debuting a daily column for The New York Sun. Asked if the material is reconstituted from Publishers Lunch, Cader tells PT that “it draws from the basic pool of material,” but is written for a general audience, and sometimes includes deals or material somewhat in advance of the weekly deal Lunch. Guess that means we all have to subscribe?
PARTIES AND EVENTS
Steve Rosenbaum and Ava Seave hosted a party on Feb. 28 for Ad Age columnist and co-host of NPR’s On the Media, Bob Garfield to celebrate the publication of And Now a Few Words From Me. The invitation asked the recipient to “Please join friends and fellow critics to poke at Bob with pointy sticks, jeer him and otherwise take liberties with his career, work and demeanor — After all, it’s what he does [in his column] to everyone else.”
• Sterling Lord celebrated 50 years as a literary agent at a party at NYU’s Silver Center on Feb. 27, with a lecture based on the forthcoming book about his career (he’s a year and a half behind schedule). Lord, Chairman of Sterling Lord Literistic, talked of once having had an author dedicate his book to him. When the dedication to Sterling Lord was translated into Portuguese for the Brazilian market, it came out as “The Almighty God.”
• Poets & Writers honored the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award on March 4 at the Tribeca Rooftop.
IN MEMORIAM
George deKay, the co-founder of M. Evans, and husband of publishing veteran Miranda, died on February 22nd.
