PEOPLE
A surprising number of higher profile industry folk moved around this month. The one that garnered the most ink was Jon Karp, who left Random House for — to hear people tell it — any number of places. Bill Barry left DK to return to Doubleday, as Publisher of the religious imprints. That news came out as Michele Rapkin‘s departure from Doubleday (where she was Director of Religion Publishing) was being announced.
Meanwhile, after four months — and in light of JR‘s decision to move to LA, Tracy Carns left ReganBooks, as did Chris Min Park, who joined Warner’s Center Street as a Senior Editor. Maureen O’Neal and Elizabeth Bewley have came to the company (in New York), as Senior Editor and Associate Editor respectively. O’Neal was most recently at Ballantine, and Bewley came over from St. Martin’s.
More moves include that of Dan Harvey, who after 17 years, left Putnam, where he was SVP Publishing Director, though he continues to consult through the end of the year.
And Michael Murphy left F+W where he was VP Sales, shortly before the announcement that it was being acquired by Abry Partners, the private equity firm in Boston. He is joining the Lisa Queen Agency, working from Cincinnati. Queen was Editor-in-Chief at Morrow when Murphy was Publisher.
Perseus Books Group just announced a reorganization of Client Distribution Services (CDS), which includes the promotion of COO Steve Black to head up client services. Meanwhile Gilbert Perlman, President of CDS (and co-founder with Black) has left the company, but will be consulting “over the next several months.”
Daniel Blackman has left Barnes & Noble.com, where he was VP General Manager, for Google, where he will be working on “a new multimedia search initiative called Google Video.”
Random’s Director of Adult Sales, Madeline McIntosh, will take over from Scott Matthews as Publisher of the Random Audio Group beginning in September, reporting to David Naggar. Matthews is leaving “for family reasons.” And Anika Streitfeld has rejoined Ballantine as Senior Editor, effective August 1st and reporting to Editor-in-Chief Nancy Miller. She will be based in San Francisco, where she previously worked for MacAdam/Cage.
In agency news, Kevan Lyon, who left AMS is now working with Sandy Dijkstra, as an agent.. . . . At Trident Media Group, Claire Roberts has joined the agency as Associate Director of foreign rights. She was Assistant Director of sub rights at Doubleday/Broadway for six years. . . . Eileen Cope has left Lowenstein-Yost and joined Trident Media Group as an agent, and former MD of William Morris‘ UK office Stephanie Cabot joins The Gernert Company.
Craig Herman has accepted a job at Spier-NY as VP, Account Director, a newly created position within the marketing services group. He was most recently at S&S. Michelle Lewy recently left Spier.
Suzanne Murphy, VP of Marketing at S&S‘s children’s group, has moved to Scholastic in the same position.. And Jon Rosenburg has joined S&S Children’s as the Editorial Director for the newly launched Simon Scribbles. Meanwhile Kathy Malloy has left Workman for S&S as Marketing Manager, reporting to Michael Selleck.
Elizabeth C. Mackey has moved from Franklin to Audible.com where she is VP, Content Business Development. . . . Gianfranco Monacelli has hired Stephanie Emerson as Senior Editor starting 8/1. She was Publishing Director at the LA County Museum of Art. . . . Columbia University Press announced that Myles C. Thompson, founder and former Publisher of Thomson Texere, will join the press as Publisher of Finance and Economics.
McGraw-Hill Professional named Jack St. Mary VP of Group Sales, overseeing national sales strategy and reporting to Keith Fox. St. Mary was most recently VP, Director of Sales at Random House Children’s Books.
Creative Publishing International, a division of The Quayside Publishing Group has hired as its new Executive Editor, B.J. Berti. She was most recently Editor-in-Chief of Bookspan’s Crafter’s Choice Book Club.
Althea Spellman has joined Atria as Publicity Manager. She ran SpellBound Media, a publicity business for the music industry and replaces Michelle Hinkson, who has returned to working as a freelance publicist.
PROMOTIONS
Random’s Libby McGuire has been promoted to Deputy Publisher, from Associate Publisher. She is a Senior Vice President and reports to Gina Centrello.
Tami Booth Corwin has been named President of Rodale Books; she continues as Editor-in-Chief. Following Amy Rhodes‘ departure, a new Publisher will be hired.
At Scholastic, Ellie Berger has been promoted to SVP, Trade Publishing. She reports to Lisa Holton. And Alan Boyko has been promoted to President for Scholastic Book Fairs. He takes over from David Krishock, who has joined Vista Management as a partner.
Hyperion announced that Editor-in-Chief Will Schwalbe and Publisher Ellen Archer were both promoted to SVP.
Marta Schooler has been named VP and Publisher of Collins Design. She has been associated with what is now Collins Design for more than 25 years, originally coming to HarperCollins in 1999 with the acquisition of Morrow. For the last six years she has served as Creative Consultant . Also, John Williams has been promoted to Editor of Harper Perennial and Harper trade paperbacks, reporting to David Roth-Ey.
Yet more promotions at S&S Children’s Publishing: Justin Chanda was promoted to Executive Editor of Atheneum.
JULY EVENTS
Bloomberg News is stepping up its coverage of the global publishing scene, and tells PT that it will be “dishing out an eclectic mix of book reviews and author interviews. The package is part of Bloomberg Muse, a year-old arts service spearheaded by Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Manuela Hoelterhoff, a former Books and Arts Editor of The WSJ. Muse has named a full-time books editor and columnist, James Pressley, a former Page One Editor of The WSJ Europe. He can be reached at jpressley@bloomberg.net or at:
Bloomberg News
International Press Center
Boulevard Charlemagne 1 / 28
B-1041 Brussels BELGIUM
DULY NOTED
The Book Standard and Nielsen BookScan announce “Book Summit & Bestseller Awards 2005,” to take place on September 22 at The Roosevelt Hotel, in NYC. Panel discussions will include “The State of the Book Industry: 2005 By The Numbers,” “The Big Debate: New Technologies Invade The Book World,” “Reclaiming Readership: How To Get In Front Of Tomorrow’s Book Buyers… Today,” and “The Retail Channel.” The day will end with The Bestseller Awards 2005, “the first-ever, Nielsen-data-powered Bestseller Awards Ceremony for books.”
The Bookseller has launched a site that offers profiles of “the top 100 UK publishing companies,” the first four of which can be downloaded for free. The report is called The Consumer Book Report UK – UK Publisher Trends, Growth and Analysis, and can be accessed at www.publishingUK.com.
The Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) has established the Classroom Publishers Alliance (CPA), a special interest group within AEP’s government relations program, according to Charlene Gaynor, Executive Director of AEP. The goal of the alliance is to continue the agenda outlined by the Classroom Publishers Association, which was successful in lobbying government officials to establish and maintain a discounted postal rate for publishers of classroom magazines. www.edpress.org.
IN MEMORIAM
Friends and family gathered at the Century Club for a remembrance of Ruth Wilk Notkins Nathan — movie executive turned literary agent who died June 7th. Presided over by brother Max Wilk and husband (and long time PW contributor) Paul Nathan, and accompanied by a lusty rendition of Brush Up Your Shakespeare (from Kiss Me Kate) were publishing and motion picture vets such as Gene Young, Larry Hughes, David Brown, Roz Targ, Sue Pollock, Caron K and nephew David Wilk.
MAZEL TOV
Congratulations to Morgan Entrekin and Rachel Cobb on their nuptials.
