Hachette UK is opening an office in Hong Kong, covering sales and marketing in all Southeast Asia territories excluding Singapore, Malaysia, and China. Paul Kenny, named to the new role of Southeast Asia sales and marketing manager, will manage the office as of September 17. He was most recently regional sales and marketing manager for Pan Macmillan Asia. “The establishment of an office in Hong Kong is part of our ongoing strategy to develop and manage our sales operations in all our markets,” group commercial director of Hachette UK Richard Kitson said in a statement. “It follows the establishment of […]
Archives for July 2012
Courier’s Publishing Division Continues Slide
Courier reported third quarter earnings, as their publishing business continues to shrink. Sales of $9.1 million were down 8 percent, though the operating loss of just under $1 million was a small improvement. Sales fell 2 percent at Dover and 31 percent at Creative Homeowner, with their REA line growing 2 percent. They launched the beta version of DoverPictura.com, an online store of over 100,000 images, during the period. Companywide, sales of $59 million were down 5 percent, “affected by a shift in ordering patterns in the education market, with textbook publishers tightening their inventory management in the current economy […]
People: Tina Bennett Moves to WME
Director at Janklow & Nesbit Tina Bennett is leaving after more than 17 years with the agency to join William Morris Endeavor’s literary division as a partner, effective immediately. We’re told Bennett’s entire client list is moving with her to WME; it includes Malcolm Gladwell, Laura Hillenbrand, Eric Schlosser, Atul Gawande, Jill Lepore, Amy Chua, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Peter Bergen, Lev Grossman, and Alex Ross. The move reunites Bennett with another former Janklow & Nesbit director, Eric Simonoff, who moved to William Morris in early 2009. WME has been recruiting aggressively, recently luring Simon Trewin of United Agents and Elizabeth […]
Briefs: RH UK Adds Digital Distribution Service; S&S Downplays PR for Posnanski Bio of Paterno; Rudin, Diller “Exploring” eBooks; And More
Random House UK‘s distribution unit–which include The Book Service and Grantham Book Services–is partnering with ePubDirect to offer a digital distribution service. It “includes e-book storage” and “global distribution in multiple formats to a growing list of customers which allows current access to over 1,000 e-tailers worldwide, and over 25,000 libraries.” ePubDirect CEO Gareth Cuddy says, “I am hugely excited about this agreement with Random House Distribution through TBS and GBS. We have developed our expertise over the last number of years working with many leading publishers and we know that Publisher sales thrive when fuelled by speed, innovation, reach […]
Though 92 Percent of Comments Oppose Settlement, Justice Is Unmoved
Per our report on Friday, the Department of Justice published the public comments on the proposed ebook pricing settlement with Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster on Monday morning, along with a 64-page summary and response. DOJ received 868 comments in all, 92 percent of which opposed the settlement, while “nearly [but not quite] seventy of those comments favored the suit and settlement.” Of those writing in favor, “several” of the submissions from 52 “readers and consumers” were similar to an online form letter. It will be no surprise that the DOJ is unpersuaded by any of the […]
People, Etc.
Margaret Mahy, 76, author of more than 120 books for children and winner of numerous awards, including the Carnegie Medal and the Hans Christian Andersen Award, died Monday in Christchurch, NZ after a brief illness. NZ Herald obit Left-wing journalist, editor of Counterpunch and author Alexander Cockburn, 71, died Saturday in Bad Salzhausen, Germany after a two year battle with cancer. NYT obit At Penguin Children’s UK, Eric Huang has been promoted to new business and IP acquisitions director, reporting to Francesca Dow. Paul Biba has resigned from TeleRead after more than five years as contributor and then editor of […]