PEOPLE
Carl Raymond has been recruited by Scholastic’s Trade president, Lisa Holton, to the newly created position of Director of New Media Projects. He was most recently Adult Publishing Director of DK.
HarperCollins Group President Brian Murray announced that Joe Tessitore, President of Collins since 2004, will retire from full-time publishing by November 1. In his memo, Murray said Tessitore “will continue to work with Collins to facilitate a smooth transition while we begin searching for a successor.” Last month Marion Maneker, VP Publisher of Collins Business left the company.
Meanwhile, HC announced that Mike Brennan has joined the company as SVP and Director of Sales for the Morrow/Avon sales group. He was previously at Penguin as VP, Director of National Accounts.
Following Bertelsmann’s announcement that it would buy Time Inc.’s stake in Bookspan, Chief Executive Markus Wilhelm has left the company and BMG Columbia’s CEO Stuart Goldfarb takes over. Howard Weill (hweill@verizon.net), George Richter, Matthias Epp and others have also left the company. Separately, the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency announced that Victoria Skurnick, Editor-in-Chief of the Book-of-the-Month Club, will become an agent starting May 21. She will be reachable at vskurnick@levinegreenberg.com [1] or (212) 337-0934.
In other agent news, PW reports that Peter McGuigan is leaving Sanford Greenburger to start his own firm with Yfat Reiss. It will be called Foundry Literary and Media. . . .The Gersh Agency announced that Phyllis Wender, who runs Rosenstone/Wender, will launch its New York-based book agency and will bring agents Sonia Pabley and Susan Cohen with her. . . . Publishers Lunch reports that Holly Root has joined the Waxman Agency. She had been at Trident Media . . . Putnam Executive Editor Dan Conaway has joined Writers House as an agent and editorial consultant.
Don Linn, previously President of Consortium Distribution which is now owned by Perseus, has been hired as Head of Business Development at Taylor Corporation (taylorcorp.com [2]).
Following Perseus’ acquisition of PGW, President Rich Freese will leave the company after July 31. Director of Marketing at PGW Tracy Fortini is also leaving then and may be reached at tracyfortini@hotmail.com [3].
Perseus announced that the field sales forces will be combined to create one organization headed by Elise Cannon. Dave Tripp, who has headed field sales at Perseus, will move to national accounts. Rick Monteith will head a single ID/mass merchandisers group. Sarah Wolf and Eric Green will direct a bi-coastal special sales team.
Don Sturtz of Fujii Associates and Ted Heinecken of Heinecken & Associates, the principals of two Independent Publishers Representative Groups in the Midwest, announced plans to merge their companies effective January 1, 2008. Operating as Fujii Associates with Don Sturtz as President and Principal, the new company will consist of all current sales and back office personnel of Fujii, most of the present Heinecken sales force, and Heinecken himself.
The Taunton Press announced that Jim Childs, Publisher of its book division has moved to Oxmoor House in Birmingham, Alabama. He will be Associate Publisher, reporting to Publisher Brian Carnahan.
Joyce Meskis, owner of the Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, will become director of the University of Denver Publishing Institute in January. She continues as owner and manager of the Tattered Cover and succeeds Elizabeth Geiser, who is retiring after more than 30 years as founding director of the Institute.
In children’s book news, Michelle Nagler has joined Bloomsbury as Editorial Director for children’s books. She was Senior Editor at Simon Pulse for the past four years. . . . Kim Shannon is joining as S&S Children’s as Director of National Accounts. She was a national account manager at Random House.. . . Chris Satterlund has joined Scholastic as District Sales Manager, reporting to Margaret Coffee, Director of Field Sales. Satterlund had been the co-owner of Snow Goose Bookstore in Stanwood, Washington and had also worked at Scott’s Bookstore. . . . Deborah Brodie, one of the three founders of Roaring Brook Press, will be leaving on May 16. . . . Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher Brenda Bowen has left the Disney Book Group. . . .
Judy Courtade has gone to Black Dog & Leventhal, in the Sales Director position Mary Wowk held before she moved to Abrams. Courtade was most recently at Random House. And Abrams Inc. announced that Beau Friedlander will join the company as Editorial Director for Abrams Image, effective June 1. Friedlander, who was most recently at Chelsea Green, will report to Leslie Stoker, who will now become SVP, Publisher for Stewart, Tabori & Chang and Abrams Image.
In the UK, Editorial Director Nick Webb has left Duckworth to resume writing. Peter Mayer and Tracy Carns (who rejoined Overlook last Fall to launch Rookery Press) will take over management for now. Trade books will now be published under the Duckworth/Overlook banner, while academic books will carry just the Duckworth name.
Palgrave Macmillan has hired Luba Ostashevsky as Editor. She was at Grove Atlantic.
S&S announced that Ben Lee has accepted the position, recently vacated by Michael Perlman, of National Account Manager, Adult, for Sam’s and BJ’s. He was most recently at Random House.
Broadway’s Morgan Road imprint is closing and Publisher Amy Hertz and two other editorial staff members will leave the company shortly as a result.
PROMOTIONS
At Disney Book Group, Jonathan Yaged has been promoted to VP, US Publisher. Yaged was VP of Business Development and Strategic Planning.
At HarperCollins, Shelby Meizlik has been promoted to Senior Publicity Director and Teresa Brady has been promoted to Associate Director of Publicity, for Collins. Also, Sarah Burningham has joined the Morrow publicity department as an Associate Director of Publicity. She was Associate Director for Regan Books. Helena Brantley has been promoted to Associate Director of Publicity for HC SF (now Harper One). And at the “Creative Development Team” at HC Lisa Sharkey announced that Executive Editor Maureen O’Brien and Senior Editor Doug Grad and Matt Harper (who has been promoted to Editor), will also be reporting to her.
BISG announced the promotion of Angela Bole to the new position of Associate Director. Formerly she was Marketing and Communications Manager at BISG, Marysue Rucci has been promoted to Executive Editor at Simon & Schuster’s adult trade imprint, a title that has not been in use at S&S in recent years.
At Sterling, Jason Prince, formerly VP, Sales & Marketing was appointed VP, Associate Publisher. Jeremy Nurnberg, formerly Director of Trade Sales, was promoted to VP, Trade & Institutional Sales. Frances Gilbert, formerly Editor-in-Chief, Children’s Books, was promoted to VP, Editorial Director, Children’s Books. Josh Wood, formerly Trade Sales Manager, was promoted to Director, Trade & Institutional Sales. Ron Davis, formerly VP, Special Sales, was appointed to VP, Special & International Sales.
Grace McQuade, Vice President, Director of Public Relations at Goldberg McDuffie Communications, has been promoted to Executive Vice President. She joined the firm in 1996.
MAY EVENTS
PEN World Voices and Words Without Borders will hold an event on May 9th, “Reading The World,” an evening celebrating literature in translation from around the world, with translator Ann Goldstein introducing her translation of Primo Levi; New Yorker Fiction Editor Deborah Treisman introducing a story by Hannah Krall and Alane Mason introducing “Meteorite Mountain” by Can Xue. Go to SymphonySpace.org for further information and tickets.
The New Yorker Conference happens May 6-7. For a mere $1200 you too can see the future as interpreted by Ken Auletta, Cory Booker, Malcolm Gladwell, Bill Buford, Arianna Huffington, and others. Go to NewYorker.com [4].
DULY NOTED
Weldon Owen announced that it is launching Gold St. Press, a new imprint that will be distributed by Ingram Publisher Services. The name comes from a small street on the side of Weldon Owen’s building, an old vinegar warehouse in the Barbary Coast section of San Francisco. The new venture, which will produce its first list in the fall, is directed by WO’s VP Sales and New Business, Amy Kaneko. WO was acquired a year ago Sweden’s Bonniers.
Congrats to Library of America, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this May.