Barnes & Noble's director of digital products Jamie Iannone has left the company and joined Wal-mart as president and ceo of Samsclub.com. The WSJ says he will oversee integrating the Sam's Club website with Wal-mart's California-based ecommerce unit as they try to grow online sales. He joined Barnes & Noble in 2009 after serving as vp, search at eBay. Iannone had received $2.87 million in salary and stock awards for the BN fiscal year ending April 2013.
McGraw-Hill Education has named David Levin its new president and chief executive officer, effective April. Levin, currently ceo of UBM, succeeds Lloyd "Buzz" Waterhouse, who will step down in April but remain on the company's board of directors.
Hachette Book Group ceo Michael Pietsch dispatched a new year's letter to authors and agents after a year that included "a record number of bestsellers." Among the plans for 2014 is the extension of Hyperion "as a foundation to expand our publishing" as a new division, with "more details...in the coming months." As previously announced, the company moves to new offices in New York and in Boston (on State Street) this fall.
Pietsch also notes, "In the year ahead, a primary goal is to continue to focus on collaborating and communicating with the authors we publish. In the first half of the year we will launch a new Author Portal."
Tim Bartlett will join St. Martin’s Press as executive editor on February 3. Previously he was an editor at Basic Books.
At Crown, Carly Gorga has been promoted to marketing manager, Clarkson Potter. In addition, Ellen Folan has been promoted to assistant director of publicity, Crown Archetype, while Emma Shafer moves up to publicity department coordinator.
Beata Santora has been promoted to senior editor at Macmillan's Quick and Dirty Tips.
Tony Lutkus will join Penguin Random House on January 27 in the newly created position of senior director, international marketing, UK and British Commonwealth Sales, for Penguin Group USA titles. Previously he was international sales and marketing director at Hachette Book Group and serves as chair of the AAP International Sales Committee.
World Book Night US will launch April 22 with more than two dozen author events across the country. The New York Public Library will host one of those (which will also be live-streamed) at their main branch on Fifth Avenue, which will include such authors as Malcolm Gladwell, Garrison Keillor, Esmeralda Santiago, and Walter Dean Meyers.
This year's expanded promotional plans include a free WBN ebook with "short pieces by booksellers, librarians and author/givers" and a special edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets printed by Dover for giveaway on April 23 at select theaters and Shakespeare productions across the country.
Knopf will publish a graduation edition of Sheryl Sandberg's LEAN IN on April 8, with a 200,000-copy first printing. The new edition, to be titled LEAN IN FOR GRADUATES, will include a new introductory letter from Sandberg as well as six additional chapters from experts "offering essential advice for entering a competitive job market."
