At Crown Business, Ayelet Gruenspecht has been promoted to marketing manager, while Megan Perritt moves up to publicity manager for the imprint as well as for Crown Forum. In addition, associate publisher for Crown Forum and Three Rivers Press Campbell Wharton will take on an additional role in project directing Crown Business campaigns on a case-by-case basis.
At the Random House Publishing Group, Sam Nicholson and Anna Pitoniak have been promoted to editor. Mika Kasuga, Caitlin McKenna, and Molly Turpin have been promoted to assistant editor.
Dervla Kelly will join Rodale as senior editor on April 7. Previously she was an editor at Abrams.
At Thomas Nelson’s Nelson Books imprint, Chad Cannon has been promoted to vice president of marketing.
Outside magazine spends time with the 25-year-old ceo of Lonely Planet Daniel Houghton. The photographer was hired by media-shy billionaire Brad Kelley, who comments briefly for the article, marking “the only time he has spoken publicly about Lonely Planet.” He writes: “Daniel has created his own opportunity. While we share some characteristics, such as drive and an ability to adapt, his superior organizational skills along with personal and communication skills have made him invaluable to the business.”
Houghton recalls his early days on the job: “I became the director, 24 years old, and I go fire a bunch of people. They think I’m an idiot. It didn’t make me popular. Brad prepared me for that. The guy is a f–king genius.”
Houghton does not disclose much about the company’s current financials, but says that digital now comprises 30 percent of sales. The magazine calls Houghton “impossibly driven, optimistic, charismatic, with a tech fetish and a welcome dose of humility.”
As suggested on Friday, reading app creator Readmill announced that the company will close later this year, and their “team will be joining Dropbox, where our expertise in reading, collaboration and syncing across devices finds a fitting home.” They write: “Readmill’s story ends here. Many challenges in the world of ebooks remain unsolved, and we failed to create a sustainable platform for reading. For this, we’re deeply sorry. We considered every option before making the difficult decision to end the product that brought us together.”
San Francisco’s Green Apple Books was named PW’s bookstore of the year.
BOOK’em Mysteries in Pasadena, CA will close at the end of April after 24 years in business as owners Mary Riley and Barry Martin retire.
Andrews McMeel Publishing is handling sales, distribution and fulfillment in the US, Canada, and open market for 8 frontlist and backlist titles from Vegan Heritage Press.