People
June was a relatively quiet month, though that doesn’t guarantee a quiet summer, judging from the increase of job listings on industry job boards and murmurings around town:
Harold Augenbraum is leaving The Mercantile Library to become Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, effective July 12. A search committee has been formed to find a new Director for the Library.
Fred Ciporen has confirmed the rumor that Reed Business Information has pulled the plug on his Reed Business Press imprint after less than 18 months. Seven people are being laid off, including Editorial Director, Beau Friedlander. Ciporen expects the 20 plus titles to find homes elsewhere.
Jay Cosgrove has gone to Yale U. Press as Sales Director. He was Wholesale Trade Sales Director of Random Adult Trade.
Rick Horgan, most recently VP, Executive Editor, at Warner Books, is moving to Crown, with the same title. Doug Pepper left recently to return to Canada, but this is not a direct replacement. Becky Cabaza, Editorial Director of Three Rivers Press, has hired Katie McHugh as Associate Editor. She worked most recently at Perigee Books. More hires to come, we hear.
Don Laventhall has joined Harold Ober Associates Inc. as a literary agent and the Director of Film Rights. Laventhall was a producer on “The Pelican Brief” and “The Devil’s Own.”
Lisa Benenson has joined Rebus, the medical packager and publisher, as VP Editorial Director. She was formerly the Editor-in-Chief for both Working Mother and Working Woman magazines, and served as Editorial Director and VP for the magazines’ parent company, Working Woman Network.
Liza Baker has gone to Little, Brown for Young Readers as Executive Editor and Director of Special Projects. This is a new position. And speaking of Time Warner’s Book Group, Andrew Malkin, has become VP International at Ingram, reporting to Peter Clifton. He was most recently Brand Manager at TWBG.
At S&S, Scribner Director of Publicity Pat Eisemann is leaving the company. Eisemann has worked for the imprint for 10 years and on and off for S&S since 1984.
S&S Children’s Publishing has hired Suzanne Harper as Senior VP Publisher for hardcover. Harper, who was Editor-in-Chief of Disney Adventures magazine since 1997, succeeds Brenda Bowen, who left S&S earlier this year to join Hyperion Books for Children.
Ariane Fink is leaving Sanford Greenberger to set up her own scouting agency. And May Wuthrich has announced that, as of July 31st, Gotham Scouting Partners will be closing its doors. Wuthrich may be reached at 646-734-8200. Her associate, DW Gibson may be reached at 917-319-6452 or DWMgibson@yahoo.com. Clients Piper, Bzztôh and Owl’s Agency in Japan will announce their respective plans shortly.
Webster Younce will join Houghton Mifflin as a Senior Editor, as of July 12. He was at Random House. Meanwhile, four years out of college, Hyperion’s Ben Loehnen has moved to Little Random to oversee what the house calls “a new business program.”
Carie Freimuth and John Hughes announced they’re leaving their respective jobs at HarperCollins and Perseus, and New York. Hughes explains: “This has been a tough choice for me, as it means turning away from my loved and respected colleagues (including Matty Goldberg, Liz Maguire, and Jamie Brickhouse) and the uniquely worthy lists we’ve published, at just the time when Perseus is emerging as an even better place to work. Carie says: “There’s much I’m excited about in relocating to Denver — it’s my hometown, and much of my family lives there. … And it’s a big adventure at the beginning of our married lives. I’ve loved the 19 years I’ve worked in publishing here. I’ve been blessed to work with many outstanding books, remarkable authors and wonderful colleagues over that time. Here’s hoping our friends and colleagues who might be visiting in the West will look us up!”
In another re-org at what used to be Grolier, 31 positions have been eliminated in the continuity division of Scholastic’s Danbury, Conn., office, representing 20% of the work force. Earlier in June, Greg Worrell was named President of the Scholastic Library Publishing division, also in Danbury. Worrell was recently SVP of Sales and Marketing for Scholastic Education. He reports to Margery Mayer, EVP, Scholastic and President of Scholastic Education.
Promotions
Brian Murray — in his first official announcement as Group President of HarperCollins — announced that Dan Halpern has been named Publisher of the Ecco imprint. He had been SVP, Co-Publisher of Fourth Estate and Editorial Director of Ecco.
Duly Noted
Random threw a party to launch its new distributed line, Real U, which publishes magazine-like books to help recent graduates of high school and college handle money, buy a car, find a job etc. (Real U CEO Steve Schultz astonished the audience by claiming to have only read “four or five” books over the years, but perhaps that was exhibiting solidarity with his prospective customers.) At the moment the books are selling only in Wal-Mart, but that will change, John Groton, Director of Distributed Client Services, tells PT, and by August the books will be available at bookstores and other outlets. Priced at $6.95, the books are written by experts such as Peter Greenberg (Travel Editor for The Today Show) and Frank Abagnale, of Catch Me If You Can fame.
• Ebooks Corp. announced the launch of its ebook-lending platform, EBL at the ALA. According to the company, the platform is targeted at academic and research libraries and aims to help them better meet fluctuations in full-text demand. Academic publishers that have signed on include Taylor & Francis, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Kluwer. EBL allows publishers to provide their content through a number of lending models, including multiple concurrent use, unlimited access and short-term circulation, as well as allowing individual ebook chapters to be set aside for reserve lending or inclusion within course packs.
Parties
Overlook’s publication party for Charles McCarry’s Old Boys — the 10th novel by a master of the suspense genre, continues Peter Mayer’s resuscitation of almost forgotten talent — Robert Littell was the last writer to see a career resurgence at his hands. Guests included Carole Baron, Bruce Harris, Alan Kahn and Bob Wietrak, who happily whispered B&N’s first two weeks sales figures to a smiling author and also commented that never in his career had he seen a publisher do as good a job as Knopf/RH was doing with Bill Clinton’s tome…praise indeed.
• Dell alum got together on June 29 at Ruby Foo’s on the UWS for an irregularly scheduled (last time was fifteen years ago) reunion. Included in the group — who all remember the pre-BDD days (forget pre-Bertelsmann) with fondness — were Random’s Reed Boyd, Reader’s Digest’s Harold Clarke, Holtzbrinck’s Alison Lazarus, agent George Nicholson, Barbara Parrott, a sales veep at Essence, and Ava Seave, a principal with Quantum Media, a consulting group. Others have left the hothouse of New York publishing for serener pastures. Sue Bynum is now VP of Episcopal Church Pension Fund (though it does have the Church Publishing Group) and Lorraine Perrin Clarke once in sales, is now an elementary school teacher.
Mazel Tov
To Ballantine’s Charlotte Herscher, and Joshua Rappaport, proud parents of Benjamin, born on June 8, 2004.
In Memoriam
Elizabeth Cater, who died May 28 at the age of 70. Her career included positions at Bobbs Merrill, the Paul Reynolds Agency, Praeger, Putnam, and the Macmillan Book Clubs. Her last position was as SVP and Publisher of Newbridge Educational Publishing.
