Chief financial officer of Ingram Content Group Frank Kerrigan will retire next year after more than 17 years in the position. He will be replaced by Brian Dauphin, currently svp, Lightning Source, as of July 1, and will serve as svp for an unspecified transition period. In a statement, ceo John Ingram said: “Through all the challenges our industry has faced, Frank Kerrigan has been a steady constant in a swirl of change. He is well respected throughout our organization and throughout our industry, and he deserves it. We will miss him, but we are very fortunate to have Brian Dauphin waiting in the wings. The transition period in the months ahead will be a luxury that we’re fortunate to have.”
Paul Samuelson has joined Twelve as publicity manager. Previously he was a senior publicist at Random House Children’s Books.
Caitlin O’Shaughnessy has been promoted to associate editor and coordinator for specials at Viking/Hudson Street Press/Plume.
On Friday, the Food Network ended their relationship with restaurateur and cookbook author Paula Deen, saying it “will not renew [her] contract when it expires at the end of this month, after she acknowledged that “of course” she used a racist slur in the past, “a very long time” ago. That remark came in a deposition she gave in May, in connection with lawsuit brought by a former employee at one of her restaurants, who is alleging sexually harassment and a hostile environment that included racial remarks. Deen thanked the network for “the pleasure of being allowed into so many homes across the country.” She said in a YouTube apology, “Inappropriate, hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable…. Please forgive me for the mistakes that I’ve made.” Long published by Simon & Schuster, Deen moved to Ballantine recently, which is scheduled to publish Paula Deen’s New Testament in October 2013.
Co-author of Holy Blood, Holy Grail Michael Baigent, 65, died recently of a brain hemorrhage. Baigent and co-author Richard Leigh unsuccessfully sued Random House UK for copyright infringement, over similarities between their work and The Da Vinci Code.
Independent Publishers Group is distributing children’s publisher Blue Manatee Press, effective immediately.
The final manuscript of children’s author Diana Wynne Jones, who died in 2011, will be completed by her sister (and fellow author) Ursula Jones and published next March by HarperCollins Children’s UK and Greenwillow. The Guardian reports Wynne Jones was working on the manuscript for The Islands of Chaldea when she became too ill to continue. .