As part of a restructure, Orion will replace its trade and paperback divisions with Orion Fiction (housing more than half of its frontlist titles, and nearly all of its crime fiction) and Orion General (for Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Phoenix, Gollancz, and Orion Children’s.) Current trade managing director Lisa Milton will run the General division, while Susan Lamb, who oversees the paperback division, will now run Orion Fiction.
Deputy ceo and group publisher Malcolm Edwards explained the restructure in a statement: “Orion’s structure has served us exceptionally well for our first two decades, but we need to look to the future. Changes in the publishing landscape — chiefly the ever-growing importance of e-books and all things digital — are emphasising the need for every book to have a tailored publishing strategy across its life in all its forms. Changing our structure will enable us better to design these strategies.”
Paperback division staff will be “redeployed across the two new divisions. Orion are discussing these changes with everyone involved”. A “small number of redundancies” are also expected due to a “general audit of the group’s processes” and “there will be restructures of the marketing and publicity departments, creating some significant new opportunities.”
At McGraw-Hill Professional, Stephanie Frerich has been promoted to senior editor in the business group.
At Random House Publisher Services, Michelle Yung has been promoted to imprint sales director.
Mike McGrath has been named publisher of Templar Publishing, effective this summer, when current md Amanda Wood is set to step aside. He is currently executive director of sales & marketing at Quercus.
James Murdoch has stepped down as executive chairman of News International, the troubled UK division of News Corp’s publishing unit (which includes HarperCollins.) A statement from News Corp said Murdoch will focus his attention on the company’s pay-television businesses and its international operations from New York. Chief executive of NI Tom Mockridge will continue in his role, reporting to coo Chase Carey.
Gerry Howard and John Oakes write on Barney Rosset, at n+1 and Pen.org, respectively.
And USA TODAY’s Bob Minzesheimer writes on William Gay, who died last week in Lewis County, TN at the age of 68. Gay was the author of three novels, including TWILIGHT and THE LONG ROAD HOME, and a collection of short stories, with a fourth book, THE LOST COUNTRY, as yet unpublished.