Layoffs at USA Today on Wednesday eliminated approximately 25 editorial jobs, including that of longtime Books section reporter and reviewer Bob Minzesheimer. He can be reached at bookbobminz@yahoo.com. He has written about books and authors since 1997.
In other news, Natasha Alexis and Lana Popovic have joined Chalberg & Sussman as agents. Both were previously at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth, where Alexis supported business affairs and Popovic managed international rights.
Former vp, publisher of Oxford University Press's trade division Ellen Chodosh has been named publisher of NYU Press, effective September 15. She succeeds Steve Maikowski, who retired in May after 13 years as publisher.
At Macmillan, Hillary Scarbrough has been promoted to the newly-created role of director of business systems. Caitlin Buckley has been promoted to digital managing editor, ebook production, and Victoria Wallis moves up to manager, digital production.
Former editor at Amazon.com's Books section Kevin Nguyen has joined Oyster as their editorial director, where he will "lead new editorial initiatives and build out a new content brand uniquely developed for our product and readers."
Caitie Flum has joined Liza Dawson Associates as assistant agent, also working on audio rights for the agency. Previously she was editorial coordinator of Bookspan's Children's Book Club.
For the first time, Nielsen is convening a Children's Book Summit in New York on December 12, designed to give publishers, marketers and content developers "a holistic view" of how children and teens "are interacting with industries such as music, video, gaming, film, and mobile technology."
