Grand Central confirmed publicly on Thursday that one of the three veteran editors laid off last week as part of Hachette Book Group’s restructuring was Rick Wolff, publisher and editor-in-chief of their Business Plus imprint, which he founded in 2000. The imprint will be discontinued, the company announced, with all titles scheduled to be published from fall 2014 onward integrated back into GCP’s main list. “The strong tradition of business book publishing will continue at GCP,” the company said. As it turns out (after we asked), the companion line Business Plus UK was already absorbed previously into Headline’s main list.
Grand Central president and publisher Jamie Raab said in the announcement: “Business books are truly mainstream. The broad range of topics they deal with reflects our concerns about every aspect of our lives. GCP’s major acquisitions in the business category are among our biggest non-fiction books each season. It is the right time to absorb Business Plus into the GCP list.”
The two other editors who were laid off last week were part of Little, Brown. In response to some follow-up questions about the job cuts, spokesperson Sophie Cottrell had emphasized this context to us: “Although we lost three editors last week, Grand Central and Little, Brown still have 30 acquiring editors, with the title associate editor and above.”