Maria Rodale, who took over as chairman and ceo of the family-owned company in 2009 from Steve Murphy, told staff in a memo last week “we have begun a search to fill two important roles — a president and chief operating officer — each of whom will report to me.”
Random House Children’s Group has announced a number of changes and additions to its marketing division. Kimberly Lauber has joined as director of marketing, having previously worked as director of marketing and publicity, children’s books for Chronicle Books. Laura Antonacci will join the School and Library team on August 12 as senior manager, library marketing. Previously she was marketing manager, education and library marketing at Penguin Young Readers Group. Beth Conte has been promoted to executive director, marketing production and operations while Kerri Benvenuto moves up to executive director of marketing, licensing and proprietary brands.
In addition, Rachel Feld has been promoted to the newly created position of executive director, consumer development, while Lynn Kestin moves up to the newly created role of director, content development. Lauren Adams has been promoted to marketing coordinator, continuing to report to Benvenuot, while Nora MacDonald moves up to associate marketing manager, reporting to Feld, and Santhana Souksamrane is promoted to producer and will continue to report to Lynn Kestin. Finally, Linda Camacho has been promoted to marketing associate.
The Crown Publishing Group has created a new Community Development team under the leadership of director Kate Rados. Chris Sigfrids has been appointed to the newly-created position of senior manager, community operations, while continuing to work as senior marketing manager for Waterbrook Multnomah. Matt Uhnjem has been promoted to web developer for the Crown Communities, moving over from the ad/promo department. Finally, Alana Buckbee has joined as social media manager. Previously she was social media strategist at Publicis Kaplan Thaler.
Laura Pennock will join Candlewick as director of mass market sales on August 5. She is currently director, retail marketing and product management, at Readerlink.
At Penguin Books, Emily Murdock Baker has been promoted to associate editor.
Gabrielle Gantz has joined Little, Brown as publicity manager. Previously she was a senior publicist at Picador.
Jen Reynolds will join Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on August 5 as national accounts manager. Previously she handled Midwest field sales for PGW/Perseus/Perseus Distribution. In addition, Morgan Gould is being promoted to national accounts manager and distribution client sales manager.
In the UK, as part of the broad store management reorganization process announced at Waterstones in May, 66 managers have left the company, the Bookseller reports. Most of those are people who declined “to take part in an assessment process to reapply” for the newly created “bookshop manager” positions. Waterstones eliminated over 500 store management jobs in May.
Hot Key Books and Red Lemon Press have hired video blogger and book reviewer Sanne Vliegenthart as their new digital coordinator.