PEOPLE
Libby Jordan, SVP Associate Publisher, Collins will be leaving the company at the end of June. She may be reached at libbyjordan@mac.com or 917.855.8377. Meanwhile, Marion Maneker announced that the Collins Business imprint has hired Ethan Friedman, from St. Martin’s, as an Editor, and Genoveva Llosa as an Associate Editor. She was at Crown and before that at Harvard Business School Press.
Deborah Dugan has resigned as President of Disney Publishing and has been succeeded by Russell Hampton, Jr., also reporting to Andy Mooney, Chairman, Disney Consumer Products. Hampton comes from DCP, where he was EVP of global Home and Infant business as well as GM of The Baby Einstein Company. Dugan can be reached at 917.331.0091.
Warner Twelve has hired Cary Goldstein as Director of Publicity and Acquiring Editor, starting in mid-July. Goldstein has been Assistant Director of Publicity and Director of Web Publicity at FSG. New publicists at St. Martin’s, where Steven Troha has been named Associate Director of Publicity. He had most recently been at Hilsinger-Mendelson. Colleen Schwartz has been named a Senior Publicist. She had been Associate Publicist at Workman, and Random House.
Markus Hoffmann has joined the Regal Literary agency as Foreign Rights Manager. He has been Director of International Scouting at Maria B. Campbell Associates. Meanwhile, Scherz, Krüger, Fischer Taschenbuch and Schatzinsel (children’s books) announce the appointment of Maria Campbell as their U.S. based literary scout effective July 1. Barbara Perlmutter continues to scout for Fischer.
Tim Parker left St. Paul, Minnesota-based specialty publisher MBI Publishing in March where he was Senior VP Publishing, a position he held for 20 years. He can be reached at tim@tgparker.com.
Jeanne Finestone, recently named Executive Director of the Capital Campaign for WNYC Radio, has left the organization. She had previously been at McGraw Hill Children’s Publishing.
Interweave Press has hired Tricia Waddell as Editorial Director of the book publishing group. She had worked at F+W, most recently as editorial director for craft, home and lifestyle books.
EARLIER IN MAY…
Betsy Groban was named VP Publisher of Children’s Books at Houghton Mifflin. She had previously been at WGBH and prior to that, at Little, Brown. Linda Magram was promoted to the new position of Director of Marketing for the entire children’s book group, adding responsibilities for such imprints as Kingfisher and Clarion. And Joe Monti, B&N‘s buyer for Young Readers and Teens joined HM as Children’s National Account Manager.
Oxford University Press announced that VP Publisher Ellen Chodosh (echodosh@nyc.rr.com) and VP Chief Sales Officer Michael Burkin (mburkin@nyc.rr.com) have left the company, following a reorg that puts academic and trade under Niko Pfund. A new department responsible for all sales and marketing activities in OUP USA excluding Higher Ed) will be created, and a new Sales and Marketing Director appointed, according to the announcement. Word is more reorgs will follow.
Weldon Owen Publishing, newly acquired by Bonnier Publishing, has appointed Christopher Davis, formerly Publisher at Dorling Kindersley, as its Publisher-at-Large to help grow its international co-edition business.
In the AMS musical chairs, Gary Rautenstrauch was named President and CEO, replacing Bruce Myers, who left in April. He has been replaced as CEO at Blackwell by Susan Peterson, who was most recently running her own firm, Strategic Team Partners, and previously was at Baker & Taylor and Lightning Source.
Following Tami Booth‘s resignation from Rodale Books, and VP Publisher Liz Perl‘s assumption of her duties, Perl has also been given oversight of the international trade books and rights business. President of Rodale International, Gianni Crespi, has left the company.
Gregg Sullivan has been appointed Director of Marketing and Promotions for ReganMedia/HC. Sullivan, who came from St. Martin’s, reports to Judith Regan, CEO and Publisher.
Jennifer Griffin has left Workman, where she was Executive Editor, for a position as a literary agent at the Miller Agency.
Karen Mender has joined the group working with the Quills Literacy Foundation and on this year’s Quill Awards. She was most recently at Atria.
Triumph Books, recently sold to Random House Group, will continue to be based in Chicago. Jeff Rogatz has been named President, reporting to Bill Takes, who was just promoted to SVP, Executive Director, Business Operations and New Business Development.
Barrie Rappaport has left Ipsos and is now Director of New Product Development – Consumer Data RR Bowker, LLC. In April Annie Callahan was named President and CEO of the company.
Michele Jacob has left Free Press to become Director of Publicity at Basic Books following Jamie Brickhouse‘s departure. Meanwhile, ex-VP, Assistant Publisher, and Director of Publicity at PublicAffairs, Gene Taft has relocated to Washington, DC and set up his own public relations firm, GT/PR. He may be reached at GeneTaftPR@aol.com
Peg O’Donnell has left NBN, to go to Chelsea Green Publishing, as Sales Director. Beau Friedlander also recently joined Chelsea Green Publishing as Marketing Director. He was most recently at ReedBusiness.
Elissa Altman has resigned as Senior Editor at Clarkson Potter to focus on freelance food/gardening/lifestyle editing and writing. She can be reached after May 25th at ElissaAltman@gmail.com.
PROMOTIONS
Carrie Feron has been promoted to VP, Editorial Director of Avon. She will also continue her role as Executive Editor, William Morrow. Earlier in May, Adrienne DiPietro was promoted to VP, Director of Marketing Avon Books. Carolyn Bodkin returned to HC as Manager of Foreign Rights, reporting to Juliette Shapland. Rachel Bressler joined the National Accounts team as National Accounts Manager for the Harper, Ecco, San Francisco, Amistad and Perennial imprints selling to B&N. She was at Morrow, where she was Associate Director of Marketing.
Kathryn Court announced the promotion of Ali Bothwell Mancini to Editor for Penguin and Plume. She reports to Stephen Morrison.
Cecily Kaiser is moving from Scholastic Book Clubs to Scholastic Trade Publishing, to become Executive Editor for Cartwheel Books and the Licensed Publishing Group, reporting to Ken Geist, VP, Editorial Director, Cartwheel Books and Orchard Books.
JUNE EVENTS
June 15th is the postmark deadline for entries for the 2006 National Book Awards. Go to www. nationalbook.org for more information.
The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) will hold its second annual conference on “WOM Basic Training (WOMBAT) June 20-21 at the Hilton San Francisco. Panels are made up of speakers from companies with names like Brains on Fire, Naked Conversations, and Voodoo Vox. Interestingly, a recent survey finds that 92% of word of mouth conversations take place offline (71% face-to-face and 21% by phone). Just 6% of word of mouth took place via email, IM, blogs, and online chat rooms. Go to womma.org/wombat2.com
DULY NOTED
AAP President and CEO Pat Schroeder, reports that the Belgrade Book Fair (see calendar) has named the US this year’s Guest of Honor. The US Embassy will take a booth and will be featuring “Culture and Democracy,” and what that means in a multi ethnic country like the US. If publishers have relevant books or catalogues they would care to donate, please contact the AAP Washington office for more information.
BEA‘s Lance Fensterman announces that they are offering free Podcasts of “approximately 24 of your favorite events” from this year’s show, and will release them as podcasts over the next couple of months. “Plus, our roving reporter has captured some special interviews in his quest to find out “What’s the Buzz” at BEA this year.” Go to www.bookexpocast.com where you can subscribe to the podcasts by email, iTunes or other podcast software.
More than 135 million adults visited American public libraries last year, and students made 1.5 billion visits to school libraries during the school year, according to the first-ever “State of America’s Libraries” report from the ALA, released during National Library Week.
Among other findings: Almost 90% of Americans surveyed in a poll report are satisfied with their public libraries. Some 62% of adult Americans have library cards, and circulation of public library materials has climbed every year since 1990.
The 2006 New Orleans Bookfair takes place Saturday, October 28th at Barrister’s Gallery in New Orleans. The bookfair is an annual celebration of independent publishing featuring small presses, zinesters, book artists, authors, anarchists, weirdos, and “lots of good times.” To learn more check http://www.hotironpress.com/bookfair.htm.
