PEOPLE At Firebrand Group, founder and longtime head Fran Toolan will retire at the end of January 2023, to be succeeded by Angela Bole, presently CEO of the Independent Book Publishers Association. Toolan will continue on as a member of the Firebrand board of directors. Tara Catogge has been named COO of Insight Editions and…Continue Reading
PEOPLE At Simon & Schuster, Tim O’Connell joins as VP, Editorial Director, Fiction, beginning November 8. He was previously Senior Editor at the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kevin Oller, lately Assistant Manager at HarperCollins, joins as National Account Manager, Baker & Taylor. Olivia Wilson joins as Manager, National Accounts; she had been International Sales Manager…Continue Reading
PEOPLE On June 7, Jeff Blackburn is returning to Amazon, where he had worked since 1998, as SVP, Global Media & Entertainment. He most recently spent a brief stint as Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. Simon & Schuster’s new lifestyle imprint, Simon Element, will launch in Spring 2022 and be led by VP and Publisher…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Molly Stern, formerly Publisher of Crown, is starting a new publishing company, Zando, and will serve as Chief Executive. The venture’s first books will be published in Fall 2021. Alexander Czik, has been named Director of Operations and Strategy. He was most recently Associate, Group Strategy and M&A at Macmillan. Penguin Random House is…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Jonathan Karp has been named President and CEO of Simon & Schuster, succeeding Carolyn Reidy, who died suddenly on May 12. Karp had been President and Publisher, Adult Publishing. As the result of reorganization at Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Mara Anastas, VP and Publisher of Aladdin and Simon Pulse, will depart after over…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Lauren Wein is joining the Simon & Schuster imprint Avid Reader Press as Editorial Director on June 24. She has been working as Executive Editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Morgan Hoit also joins the imprint as Associate Marketing Manager; most recently, she was Associate at Jill Furman Productions. Leslie Mechanic, formerly Senior Designer at…Continue Reading
PEOPLE Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has hired Jack Lynch as President and CEO. L. Gordon Crovitz will continue as interim CEO while Lynch wraps up his work as CEO of Renaissance Learning and relocates to Boston. Cal Morgan has returned to publishing as VP, Executive Editor of Riverhead. He was previously Editorial Director for Harper Paperback…Continue Reading
