After just five months as chief executive at the Headline group in the UK, Kate Wilson has left the company by “mutual agreement” according to a brief statement. Hachette UK adds that “after a period of consultation, a more detailed announcement will follow.” Wilson was supposed to be taking over from Martin Neild as he prepared to retire from the company in 2010. For now, deputy managing directors Jane Morpeth and Kerr MacRae will report to Neild again.
In unrelated Hachette UK news, Jon Wood has been promoted to deputy group publisher, reporting to Malcolm Edwards in the new role–while remaining as publishing director of Orion Fiction and Gollancz, and still reporting to Lisa Milton in those roles.
On Saturday Reinhard Mohn, the man who built Bertelsmann into an international media conglomerate following World War II, died at age 88. He had continued to serve as honorary chair of the company’s supervisory board, though he had passed control of the family’s shares to his second wife Liz Mohn.
Frank Goodall, McGraw-Hill’s former long time West Coast sales representative from 1963 until his retirement in 1997, passed away on September 19. He was 82.