As the minutes before the National Book Awards ceremony tick down, PT was curious about the changing state of US book prizes generally. According to a 2009 white paper by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the prize industry is growing faster than any other philanthropic sector. The business of prizes has become so large as [...]
Laura Hazard Owen | December 2008
In these tough economic times, it’s nice to hear something other than bad news. So here’s our third annual roundup of publishers doing good. We hope it warms your heart and inspires you in the New Year—here’s to 2009! Each summer, Robin Straus of the Robin Straus Agency volunteers at Circle of Tapawingo, a weeklong [...]
PEOPLE November has been a month of moves, the most talked about being Riverhead Co-Publishers Julie Grau and Cindy Spiegel move from Penguin to Doubleday and the subsequent promotion of Sean McDonald to Executive Editor. He was previously Senior Editor and Online Creative Director. HarperCollins announced Justin Loeber has been appointed SVP, Executive Director of [...]
PEOPLE Another busy month of musical chairs, Geoff Kloske has been named VP Publisher of Riverhead, replacing Julie Grau and Cindy Spiegel, who moved to Doubleday in November. Kloske was VP, Executive Editor of the Adult Trade Group at S&S. Linda Kennedy has resigned as President of Globe Pequot Press “to pursue other interests,” according [...]
People The beginning of a new year seems to have prompted some early spring cleaning, with an unusual number of moves around the industry. The one that got the most attention was Sara Nelson’s move to PW as its new Editor-in-Chief, replacing Nora Rawlinson, who may be reached at norar@nyc.rr.com. Lee Boudreaux has left Random [...]
People Maureen O’Neal has left Ballantine and can be reached by email at mrnoneal@aol.com. Elizabeth Dyssegaard is also leaving at the end of the summer. Katherine Beitner to HarperCollins as Associate Publishing Director. She was Director of Publicity for Harmony and Shaye Areheart Books. In children’s books there is more movement: Last month Diana Blough [...]
PEOPLE Following the doldrums of December, January brought some major moves, including Michael Jacobs’ sortie from Scholastic, and David Steinberger’s installation as the President and CEO of the Perseus Books Group. Movement is everywhere: Random House has combined its two separate retail sales forces into a single unit, resulting in the departure of at least [...]
PEOPLE CDS’ Stanley Cohen has taken a leave of absence and Steve Black has stepped in as Acting Sales Director. David Wilk, VP of Client Services and Business Development, has taken over some responsibilities and a new Client Services Manager, Kerry Liebling, has been hired. Erin McHugh has been named Director of Creative Services, Trade [...]
PEOPLE Lots happening in the sales and distribution world: The big — though not unexpected — news is that, following Kristina Peterson’s departure from Simon & Schuster, Rick Richter has been named President of the S&S Children’s Publishing Division, a position he held prior to Peterson’s arrival. He is currently President of the S&S Sales [...]
PEOPLE Steve Parr has been named CEO of Abrams, following the departure of Mark Magowan and Alan Rutsky (along with two dozen others) at the end of the year. He was most recently with Emap. . . . After 14 years at Harcourt, Louise Pelan, VP and Publisher of Children’s Books, is taking early retirement [...]