PEOPLE
Brian Napack has been named President of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. In the newly created position, Napack will share general management responsibilities with CEO John Sargent over all of Holtzbrinck’s divisions, including both trade and educational operations.
Steve Sorrentino, most recently an author (Luncheonette) has gone to B&N as Director, Author Promotions & Special Events working for Brenda Marsh.
Ken Wright, Associate Publisher of Scholastic has left the company and may be reached at kenrwright@mac.com. Meanwhile Alan Smagler moves to Scholastic on April 10 as VP Trade Sales. He was previously Publisher of the children’s book group at Houghton Mifflin. Smagler takes over from Gray Peterson, who will be reassigned to a senior sales position, reporting to Smagler.
At Penguin, Laurie Chittenden has left Dutton. Kendra Harpster has moved to the house as Editor. She was an associate editor at Doubleday. Kristen Weber starts next month as a Senior Editor at NAL, overseeing their mystery list and acquiring in other areas. She had been an editor at Warner, overseeing the Mysterious Press imprint. Joshua Kendall will join Viking next month as Senior Editor. He was an Editor at Picador.
Also leaving Picador is Amber Qureshi who will join Free Press as Editor on April 24. . . .Spiegel & Grau have hired away Gretchen Koss as publicity director. She has been Associate Director of Publicity at Viking.
Herb Schaffner has been named Publisher for business books at McGraw-Hill, reporting to Jeffrey Krames, VP Publisher, Business books. Schaffner was a Senior Editor at Collins Business. Don Fehr has left Smithsonian/ HarperCollins as the role of Smithsonian Books publisher has been eliminated. Elizabeth Dyssegaard will run the Smithsonian Books editorial office in New York, and Smithsonian Business Ventures has named Carolyn Gleason to the Washington, DC-based post of Director of Smithsonian Books. Tim Brazier has left HarperCollins to join Basic Books as Publicity Manager.
Virgin has hired Mary Albi to run the their US Sales & Marketing operation. She was most recently at Continuum. And David & Charles MD Sara Domville has been appointed President of the Book Division, following the retirement of Budge Wallis. She will continue responsibility for David & Charles UK, commuting from F+W‘s headquarters in Cincinnati. . . .Amy Collins has founded Cadence Marketing Group. She had been Specialty Sales Director at F+W Publications.
Judy Sjo-Gaber has joined Bloomberg Press as Director of special markets and corporate sales. Most recently she had been at Weekly Reader Publishing and was previously at Prentice Hall. Also joining Bloomberg Press is Janet Coleman as Senior Developmental Editor. Most recently she had been a freelance business writer and editor. Prior to that she worked for several publishers, including Harvard Business School Press.
Courtney Hodell is moving to Farrar, Straus as Executive Editor. She has held the same title at HarperCollins.
Meredith has hired Lisa Berkowitz as Executive Editor, reporting to Linda Cunningham. . . . Vintage has hired Furaha Norton as an editor. She had been at Oxford for the past five years, most recently as Associate Editor. She succeeds Anjali Singh who went to Houghton. . . . at Disney, Simon Tasker has been named Director of Global Retail sales. He was previously Director of National Accounts at S&S.
E-publishing veteran Elizabeth Mackey has moved to wireless content provider Motricity as VP and General Manager of their e-book web site eReader. Mackey has been VP for content business development Audible. . .iUniverse has hired another publishing vet, Judy Klein as a sub-rights consultant. Klein has worked at FSG and in book clubs.
Jay Henry has been hired as Director of Marketing at Abrams. He was Senior Marketing Manager at DK for the past six years. Lisa Sherman-Cohen takes over as Director of Publicity for Abrams and Stewart, Tabori and Chang. Most recently, she worked on buzz marketing at Buzztone. Kerry Liebling joins the company as Trade Marketing Manager. She was a Client Services Manager at CDS/Perseus Book Group. All three will report to vp of marketing, Maggie Kneip.
Lisa Benenson has been named Editor-in-Chief of Hallmark magazine. She had been editorial director at Rebus Media since June 2004 and was previously Editor-in-Chief of Working Woman and Working Mothers.
PROMOTIONS
Lots of popping champagne corks in children’s books: Josalyn Moran has been promoted to VP, Children’s Books for B&N. At Disney Publishing Jeanne Mosure has been promoted to SVP and Publisher, Global Children’s Books. Following the departure of Tracy Van Straaten, Paul Crichton has been named Director of Publicity of S&S Children’s Books. He has been acting as interim director of publicity for Simon Spotlight Entertainment and was most recently at ReganBooks. He’ll report to S&S Children’s publisher Rubin Pfeffer. And Jennifer Zatorski has been promoted to Associate Director of Publicity. . . .Karen Frangipane has been named Associate Director of Trade Marketing, she was formerly Marketing Manager, Trade.
Jess Michaels has been promoted to Director of Publicity at Penguin Young Readers Group. . . . Josh Weiss has been named Vice President, Publishing Operations for HarperCollins Children’s Books.
At Little, Brown children’s division Liza Baker has been promoted to editorial director of LB Kids, the novelty and licensed book imprint . . . Cindy Eagan has been promoted to Editorial Director of their new teen chick lit paperback imprint. . . . Andrea Spooner has been promoted to Editorial Director of core trade hardcover and paperback lists.
David Rosen newly appointed Editorial Director, has also been named Publisher of Abrams and the new Image imprint. Eric Himmel, Editor in Chief, Abrams, will launch a new, to be named imprint, whose first books will be published in the Winter/Spring 2007. Additionally, he will oversee the recently launched Abrams Studio and will continue to serve on the Pub Board and Management Committee for HNA. Deb Aaronson is promoted to the newly created role of Executive Editor, Abrams.
At Houghton Mifflin, VP and Director of trade sales Ken Carpenter has moved to the adult editorial department to take over as Director of trade paperbacks. . . . Kate Tentler has been promoted to SVP, S&S Digital.
St. Martin‘s Executive Editor Jennifer Weis has been given the additional title of Manager, Concept Development, and will “develop non-traditional book concepts.” Including “book/movie development” creating custom publishing programs with companies, branded publishing, and other special projects.
Mark Tavani has been promoted to Senior Editor at Ballantine Random House Publishing Group.
APRIL EVENTS
BISG‘s Making Information Pay takes place on Thursday April 27, 8-12 at the Millennium Broadway Hotel. Wired’s Chris Anderson is the keynote speaker. For more info contact Angela@bisg.org or call 646 336 7141.
NYT Managing Editor Jill Abramson will talk on April 18th at the General Society Library, at 20 West 44th Street. Later in the month the Second Annual New York Round Table Writers’ Conference takes place. The event, also at the Library, takes place on Friday and Saturday, April 28-29, 2006. For details go to www.smallpressorg.
EARLY MAY EVENTS
Literacy Partners celebrates An Evening of Readings on May 1 at the New York State Theater. Liz Smith will help MC, and authors Augusten Burroughs, Michael Cunningham and Nora Ephron will be on hand as well. For more information call 212 573 6933.
The UJA-Federation Publishing Division dinner takes place on May 9th, and honors Henry Hirschberg, President of McGraw-Hill Education. In addition, there will be a special celebration of the life of Byron Preiss, whose widow, Sandi Mendelson, will accept the Harry Scherman Lifetime Service Award in Byron’s memory. Peter, Paul and Mary will provide the musical entertainment. For information, call Marcy Fink at 836 1448.
DULY NOTED
The Mercantile Library has announced the creation of the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. The award is supported by members of the Sargent family, in recognition of John Sargent Sr.’s work as President and CEO of Doubleday. The annual prize will carry with it a $10,000 cash award and will be presented for the first time on November 6, 2006 at The Mercantile Library’s Annual Gala Awards Dinner. The short-list will be announced August 2006.
