John McKay has joined the Association of American Publishers (AAP) as senior vice president, communications. He was most recently an executive officer with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Previously, he was a vp of communications for both NBC Universal and Sony Music Entertainment. Nancy Ellwood has joined Arcadia Publishing to launch a new local…
Investor Sues Barnes & Noble Education Over Blocked Board Nominations, Rejected Buyout Offers
Barnes & Noble Education, which has worked hard to perform even more poorly than the Barnes & Noble retail operation since the two split apart almost 4 years ago, now finds itself the focus of its own strange potential sale. Bay Capital Finance, which appears to be focused on real estate development, says it has…
People, Etc.
Matthew Benjamin has joined Harmony and Rodale Books as executive editor, reporting to Diana Baroni. He was most recently at Atria. Christopher Sergio will join Holt as vp, group creative director, starting August 19 and reporting to Ben Shrank. He was previously vp art director at Penguin Random House. He will oversee the creative product…
Pearson Will Phase Out Regular Print Textbooks to Push Students to Digital Versions
As the textbook market continues to shrink, industry leader Pearson is playing their final card in trying to get budget-savvy college students to fall in line, and as usual pretending it is corporate innovation. They are transitioning away from the printed textbook entirely, hoping to strangle the secondary market for used (and imported) textbooks once…
Abandoned Fox 2000 Team Resurrected By HarperCollins and Sony Pictures
The Fox 2000 team headed by Elizabeth Gabler produced numerous successful book-to-film adaptations over the years, but when Fox was sold to Disney the division was abruptly disbanded earlier this year. Now, the unit’s one-time corporate sibling HarperCollins is joining with Sony Pictures to bring back that production team, including includes Erin Siminoff, Marisa Paiva,…
People, Etc.
Brenda Marsh, founding managing director of the UK joint venture Abrams & Chronicle, will return to the US. UK and export sales director at Hardie Grant Inez Munsch will take over as managing director on September 23. Online used bookseller ThriftBooks has hired Ross Mignoli as cfo. He is a former partner at Arthur Andersen…