The DMD Marketing Conference & Expo, officially a “forum of new ideas and technological advances” that proffers “information in ecommerce, technology, media, database, and creative services,” pulled a surprisingly large group of attendees to the Javits Center during its direct marketing mêlée on June 17-19, many of whom were lured by the promise of hearing…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Paul Gottlieb has been named Executive Director of the Aperture Foundation. He leaves Abrams after 22 years, during which time he held the titles of Publisher, President, CEO, and most recently, Company Director and Vice Chairman of the La Martiniere Groupe. He begins August 1. Brigitte Weeks is leaving Guideposts to become Vice President…Continue Reading
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…Continue Reading
By now the rise of books about the Mideast and the fall of just about everything else has been well documented by The New York Times and Publishers Weekly. Many reasons have been cited: the abrupt cancellation of tours; the general lack of promotion and concurrent lack of reader attention; the economy; and fear, any…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Congrats to Phyllis Grann — and Random House — who have finally tied the knot in what is perhaps the last good news of ’01? Word is that not all publishers there are equally excited, leading to speculation about whether the last card has yet been played. Back at Penguin Putnam, Adrian Zackheim has…Continue Reading
As jitters over snail mail consume the media, email marketers have been keen to whisper what amounts to the new gospel in direct-to-consumer marketing: opting-in. Wary of their mailboxes, the theory goes, customers are much more likely to agree to receive promotional messages via email. Whether or not this is actually the case, sagging response…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Layoffs are the order of the day, though mergers, not the economy, seem to be the main reason. DK has laid off about 25 people, with more to come. Meanwhile, the move down to Hudson Street has been postponed, apparently as a cost-savings measure. No word yet on Phyllis Grann’s plans, though Random House…Continue Reading
Black-tie shebangs are thick on the calendar this time of year, with publishers scurrying from one award ceremony to the next, buoyed along by the hope of slapping those “Winner!” stickers on their authors’ books — or at least hoping to have a good meal and a quick exit from the fête du jour. September…Continue Reading
PEOPLE As announced previously, Bill Shinker will join Penguin Putnam as SVP and Publisher of an as yet unnamed imprint, on Sept. 4. He was most recently at Free Press, where he had been Publisher from August 2000 to his resignation at the beginning of April. Ken Wright, formerly at Holt Reference, has been named…Continue Reading
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT INSIDE.COM (4/23/01) You can’t blame Thomas Middelhoff for trying. The chief executive of German media behemoth Bertelsmann — doted on in the business pages as a Visor-toting visionary dragging an ossified corporate empire out of the Westphalian mist — has upped the ante for global synergizing in one of his company’s most…Continue Reading
