Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Four-time winner of Mexican National Theatre Prize for playwriting, and also […]
Archives for February 2010
Burkle Continues Agitating Against Barnes & Noble Board
It was fairly obvious that the Barnes & Noble board of directors would decline investor Ron Burkle’s request that they grant him an exception from the poison pill provision that they adopted specifically to block Burkle and his friends from threatening the Riggios’ de facto control over the company. But in a new letter to the board, Burkle expresses surprise that the company’s independent directors did not contact him before dismissing his concerns, and he asks for a meeting: “I would have hoped that the non-management members of the Board would have contacted me before unilaterally rejecting my request that […]
People
Simon & Schuster Audio vp audio production Sandy Moore is retiring March 1 after 25 years with the division, since it’s founding in 1984. Christopher Lynch writes, “her vision for how an audiobook should sound literally shaped an industry, and her ability to adapt to the changing times has kept S&S as the standard bearer for quality audio production as we move quickly into the digital age.” Another veteran, Elisa Shokoff, will take over Moore’s position. At Shreve Williams Public Relations, Kathleen Schmidt will join the company March 15 as director of publicity and digital media, part of “a strategic […]
Random Names New Digital Execs; Realigns A Few Imprints
Random House CEO Markus Dohle announced internally today “our next steps forward in accelerating the company’s transition to digital, growing our physical book sales, and increasing the efficiency of our customer- author- and publisher-support services.” He also noted some other realignments: The Princeton Review, Sylvan Learning, and Prima Games imprints are becoming part of Random House Children’s Books division, with their leaders reporting to Chip Gibson. Ten Speed’s children’s line Tricycle Books will now operate as an imprint of Knopf Children’s. The digital announcements, which create three separate teams and a “new leadership structure” for Random House Sales, Operations and […]
O'Reilly: Stay Focused On the "Boring Stuff"
O’Reilly Media ceo Tim O’Reilly provided a commanding ending to the company’s multi-day Tools of Change conference yesterday, where organizers said they had over 1,250 attendees. Curiously, however, in speaking to the core strengths of what a publisher does, O’Reilly seemed to rebut much of what had been presented during the conference itself. He made it clear that it is virtually impossible for publishers to “be the winners in a technology race.” So publishers should spend less time chasing what’s cool and what’s new and focus instead on the nuts and bolts of nurturing audiences and sales channels and delivering […]
People and More
Director of Janklow & Nesbit UK Tif Loehnis is leaving the agency after 10 years. She tells the Bookseller: “I have a large and noisy family who need to see more of me than they have done in the last few years and my authors need an agent who can be more available to them.” Editions Robert Laffont in France has named Anne-Louise Associates as their London Scout as of March 1. They will continue to work with Univers Poche as well. In the tidbit department, we picked up these interesting factoids on Twitter from Arsen Kashkashian at the Boulder […]