Archives for July 2006

Penguin Hits their Modest Targets Pearson turned in a good first half of fiscal 2006, lifted largely by its big education unit, and Penguin Group delivered the small underlying sales growth and improved profits exactly as projected six months ago. Penguin’s pattern has been to congratulate itself heartily when sales grow one to two percent, and their 387 million pounds for this reporting period provides just that — “underlying growth” of two percent compared to a year ago. Total sales grew more, up from 353 million pounds last year, due to the transfer of the Brady Games video game imprint […]

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Hachette’s Quarter, Patterson’s Rights, Audible’s Results Lagardere presented their first quarterly results incorporating the acquisition of the former Time Warner Book Group, which contributed 98 million euros ($125 million dollars) for the fiscal second quarter. Total sales this period for the Hachette Livre group overall were 495 million euros, compared to 393 million euros a year ago — up about 4 million euros beyond TWBG. Though slight, that’s an improvement over the first quarter decline in the book division. By the company’s currency-adjusted calculations, they are up 2 percent for the first six month on a like-for-like basis. In straight […]

Amazon’s First Option Amazon has optioned screen rights to Keith Donohue’s THE STOLEN CHILD, Variety reports, and “will move to secure a filmmaker and then a studio partner to turn the fantasy into a live-action feature.” Director of merchandising Laura Porco says: “We are always trying to innovate, based on listening to customers and the things they’re passionate about. This was a book we passed around to our editorial and merchandising teams. Everybody was excited by Keith’s voice and felt this could be a great movie.” Agent Joe Regal comments: “This is all a gamble, but if you’re going to […]

Changing of the Guard at CDS CDS president and co-founder Steve Black is leaving the company “to pursue other interests” following an agreed upon year-long transition, the last of the original team of long-term distribution executives associated with the company. Perseus has hired Sabrina Bracco to rejoin the company next month from Bear Stearns and run the distribution unit, with the title of vp, client services, reporting to Perseus CEO David Steinberger. Bracco worked for Perseus in a variety of roles before going to Bear Stearns, including serving as director of sales operations. CDS Books publisher Roger Cooper now reports […]

Bernard Moves On, Saletan Moves Up; New Boss for Penguin UK; and More Personnel News Harcourt Adult publisher Andre Bernard is leaving after ten years at the company to become vice president of the Guggenheim Foundation. Editor-in-chief Becky Saletan, who joined the house two years ago, will take over Bernard’s role as publisher. Also at Harcourt, Peter Horan has joined the company as a publicist, after two years at St. Martin’s. In the UK, Penguin finally will have a dedicated operational executive again. Peter Field, who runs Penguin and Pearson in Australia, is moving to London as chief executive of […]