Faber finance director David Tebbutt was killed early Sunday morning and his wife, Judith, was taken hostage by suspected Somali extremist militants at a tourist lodge in the Kiunga marine reserve on the Lamu archipelago off Kenya’s northern coast. Tebbutt and his wife had been on holiday and had only arrived at the resort a few hours before the attack. Tebbutt joined Faber in 2002 and was previously managing director of The Harvill Press and finance director of Routledge. The Bookseller is collecting tributes to Tebbutt from trade colleagues.
The Australian
At Touchstone, Kaitlyn McCrystal has been promoted to associate publicist.
Following on last week’s report that St. Mark’s Bookshop is seeking reduced rent from its landlords, an online petition has been circulating that asks for “a significant rent concession by Cooper Union” that “could save this irreplaceable neighborhood institution.” So far nearly 13,000 people have signed.
Petition
Wattpad has announced a new $3.5 million series A round of funding, led by Union Square Ventures with W Media Ventures, Golden Venture Partners, and the pre-existing funders. Union Square’s Albert Wenger will join Wattpad’s board. The company also hails the expertise of W Media Ventures’ ceo and founder Boris Wertz, who used to lead AbeBooks. They will use the funds to fuel their growth, and say that their online epublishing and ereading community platform has registered over 1 million users.
3M has invested an undisclosed amount in next-generation LCD screen manufacturer Pixel Qi through its 3M Ventures arm. The series B funding will help enable Pixel Qi “to develop its product offerings into volume consumer markets as well as digital signage and touch applications.”
Release
InScribe Digital will distribute business publisher Bibliomotion‘s ebook content globally.