At this morning’s BISG annual meeting, the organization confirmed that vice chair Ken Michaels is now serving as co-chair of the organization’s board, alongside Dominique Raccah, who will step down from her position in a year. (Raccah took over as sole chair of the board last November when co-chair Andrew Weber left Random House.) Little, Brown, John Parsley has been promoted to executive editor. He joined the company in the fall of 2007. David Moldawer has joined Amazon Publishing as senior editor for the New York-based trade group, run by Larry Kirshbaum. Previously he was a senior editor at McGraw-Hill. At […]
Archives for September 2011
Sourcebooks Establishes New Education Division, and More
Fast-growing Sourcebooks is launching a new education division that will incorporate and extend existing publications and programs for college students and the college-bound with a number of new initiatives. Initial staffing for the division will include six new positions in sales, marketing and information systems, continuing to draw on existing staff in editorial and publicity. The first new hires are: Technical architect Deb Kimminau, responsible for leading the design and development of new digital initiatives, which include MyMaxScore; programmer analyst Kavita Khanna, responsible for updating and implementing new technical requirements for the MyMaxScore adaptive learning software; and education sales manager […]
Pearson to Relocate Near Penguin In NY
Pearson intends to relocate Education division employees from White Plains, NY and Upper Saddle River, NJ to Manhattan in 2014, right near Penguin’s NYC offices. The company says it expects to add 600 new media and technology jobs as well. The mayor’s office says in a press release Pearson will reap “at least $13.5 million in city-granted energy-cost savings and state tax credits over 10 years” for the 270,000 square feet of space they are taking at 330 Hudson Street, with the possibility of other incentives as well. Pearson is said to be investing $21 million in renovating the space. […]
Bookselling: Stores Close in Westhampton, Downtown LA; OFT Sets Amazon/Book Depository Ruling Date; and More
The Open Book in Westhampton Beach will close by the end of the year. Owner Terry Lucas told the Southampton Press that “the difficult economy, the rise of the popularity of e-books and the arrival of another bookstore down the block” — meaning the Westhampton outpost of Books & Books, which opened in 2010 — combined to influence her decision. “We have tried everything to stay open, but it is not financially feasible to keep going…. I’m trying to focus on the good. I met so many amazing people and had so much fun.” Southhampton Press Metropolis Books will close […]
Library Admits Flaws, Postpones Orphan Release–Yet Vows to Continue
The University of Michigan has taken the logical and appropriate step following the Authors Guild’s swift ability to show that the “due diligence” process for finding potential owners of supposed orphan works before treating those books as available for free distribution was fatally flawed. They said in a statement today, “The close and welcome scrutiny of the list of potential orphan works has revealed a number of errors, some of them serious. This tells us that our pilot process is flawed. “Having learned from our mistakes—we are, after all, an educational institution—we have already begun an examination of our procedures […]
Borders Auctions IP Off to Multiple Bidders, Including Barnes & Noble and Berjaya Books
Borders held an auction for its intellectual property Wednesday and Hilco Streambank, which conducted the proceedings and fielded offers from ten bidders, announced they had sold various assets for nearly $15.8 million. Hilco Streambank was vague on exactly who bought what asset, initially naming only Barnes & Noble and Berjaya Books among the “multiple bidders” who each acquired pieces of Borders’ IP, including a global portfolio of trademarks, the Borders, Waldenbooks and Brentano’s trade names, various domain names, and the Borders.com website. Barnes & Noble paid approximately $13.9 million, but no one has specified yet what they bought.Berjaya Books owns […]