Year-end letter time continues with Random House ceo Markus Dohle’s missive to staff, in which he highlights “another successful year” for the company at a time of “enduring change and challenges for our industry.” He points to a culture and organization that’s more “collaborative, team-oriented, flexible, efficient, and agile” and allows Random House staffers to implement strategies more effectively. “In short, we aren’t reacting to change, we are driving it.” Dohle called Random House’s continuing success “all the more impressive in light of the prevailing weak economy.” He highlighted “hundreds” of bestsellers in the US, UK, Germany, and Spain including […]
Archives for December 2011
People: BN’s Astarita To Lead Rodale Digital Team
Anthony Astarita will join Rodale as svp, general manager for digital and brand development on January 3, according to the NYT. Astarita has been vp, general manager for e-commerce and digital products at Barnes & Noble for the past 3 years (helping to develop and market the Nook line of digital products) and joined the company in 1998. Rodale ceo and chairwoman Maria Rodale said in a statement that Astarita brought “a wealth of digital expertise and notable credibility to the ambitious digital efforts Rodale has set for 2012 and beyond. He’s poised to expand our global digital business to […]
S&S Celebrates A Good Year
It’s year-end letter time, and Simon & Schuster ceo Carolyn Reidy wrote to employees on Friday, celebrating that the company “is poised to deliver excellent financial results including significant growth in profits over our 2010 levels.” One key has been “opportunity titles” that “were not originally in the budget” for this year but have gone on to comprise four of their ten bestselling titles: STEVE JOBS by Walter Isaacson, A STOLEN LIFE by Jaycee Dugard, THE 17 DAY DIET by Mike Moreno, and GABBY by Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly Reidy acknowledges one of the year’s significant developments, as well […]
The Best of the Best of 2011, So Far, Updated
With more lists rolling in–the WSJ, People and Entertainment Weekly among them–the consensus best of the best of 2011 list is acquiring real shape and clarity. As always happens, both the fiction and nonfiction lists have neatly produced two clear groups of top 10 picks. Continuing the pattern from the beginning of this year’s voting, the top novels are acquiring far more votes, with fiction claiming 7 of the top 8 slots overall. Tea Obreht’s THE TIGER’S WIFE remains the runaway pick for book of the year. We’re still waiting on lists from a few major sources, including USA Today […]
People, Etc.
Author Christopher Hitchens, 62, lost his battle with esophageal cancer, dying on Thursday. Vanity Fair writes, “May his 62 years of living, well, so livingly console the many of us who will miss him dearly.” Hitchens’ UK publisher Atlantic Books has said they will release his already-planned final book, a collection of essays called MORTALITY, in January according to the Guardian. (It’s currently listed for sale in April online.) His US publisher Twelve also has the book in process, though has not announced a publication plan yet. Publisher Cary Goldstein says, “What’s paramount is to publish an enduring work that’s […]
A Million Kindles A Week; BN Said to Increase Nook Orders; and More eNews
Yesterday Amazon issued a press release saying they are selling “well over 1 million Kindle devices per week…for the third week in a row,” across all of their Kindle readers. They answer recent criticism of their new tablet by saying “Kindle Fire sales increased week over week for each of the past three weeks.” While the company has put Kindle sales in the “millions” before, it’s the first time they have declared sales of more than a million units in a week. Separately, Digitimes has updated their supply chain reports on devices expected to be manufactured for Barnes & Nook. […]