Sheree Bykofsky Associates has taken over the list of DSM Agency, as Doris Michaels “decided to make a transition in her life, which meant finding a new home for her clients.” Colleagues for a long time, they report: “Sheree and Doris realized that they ran their agencies in much the same way and Doris decided to look no further in her search for the perfect home for her list. It has been an extremely smooth transition, and they both feel like this was meant to be.”
Sara Weiss has been promoted to editor for both the Grand Central Life & Style and Grand Central.
Gale has appointed Paul Gazzolo as svp an general manager, leading their strategy, product development, sales and marketing teams. Most recently he was general manager of the research and learning business at Wolters Kluwer CCH Tax & Accounting, prior to which he was president of World Book.
Random House Children’s Books has acquired Now I’m Reading!, a step-by-step early reading series product line from innovativeKids, a toy and education company based in Norwalk, CT. innovativeKids will continue to fulfill orders until July 1, 2015, at which time Random House will handle sales and distribution. President of innovativeKids Shari Kaufman will continue to advise in the creation and development of Now I’m Reading!, working closely with Tom Russell, vp, publisher of The Princeton Review and Sylvan Learning Books, who will assume oversight of the product line at RHCB. “We will build on the extraordinary success created by Shari and the team at innovativeKids®, and we are eager for the opportunity to expand the audience for Now I’m Reading!” Random House Children’s president and publisher Barbara Marcus said in the announcement. “Shari’s boundless energy and creativity is so inspiring, and we are fortunate to have her vision at the core of this brand—which I believe is a perfect fit for Random House Children’s Books.”
Keith Gessen’s Vanity Fair piece on “the Amazon war of 2014” is online in advance of the December print issue. In one fashion, he suggests, “the Amazon-Hachette dispute mirrors the wider culture wars that have been playing out in America since at least the 1960s. On the one side, super-wealthy elites employing populist rhetoric and mobilizing non-elites; on the other side, slightly less wealthy elites struggling to explain why their way of life is worth preserving.” Later he writes: “The dispute between Amazon and the publishers is a dispute between an e-commerce giant and companies that have for generations been printing text on paper. In some respects it is also a dispute between the East Coast and the West Coast. It is definitely a dispute between hyper-capitalism and cultural conservation. But in the end it is a dispute that comes down to different visions of the future of the written word.”
Gessen visits with Seattle-based class action lawyer Steve Berman, who brought the ebook pricing lawsuit against publishers and Apple on behalf of consumers. “I’d love to sue Amazon. It’s the only big company I haven’t sued,” he said. “But you need a Microsoft moment” such as when the software company was caught saying “We need to cut off Netscape’s air supply” with Internet Explorer. Gessen adds, “Berman wasn’t optimistic.”
Updating Wednesday morning’s news on Jason Prince, his title at St. Martin’s is marketing operations manager.