As part of a restructuring of the Simon & Schuster’s digital and marketing departments, Liz Perl has been promoted to the new position of evp, chief marketing officer, overseeing both digital and marketing under one combined unit, while evp, chief digital officer Ellie Hirschhorn will leave the company on December 12 after more than six years. Of the changes, ceo Carolyn Reidy said in the announcement: “Our combined digital and marketing group will have in place the skills and knowledge we need to run our industry-best websites; maximize corporate social media, email and mobile marketing; produce our successful original author videos; distribute our content to millions of viewers and readers worldwide; and identify new business partners who can help us achieve our publishing goals and find new and cutting-edge technology opportunities that can benefit our books and authors. This closer connection between our traditional and digital marketing efforts at every step of our publishing process will enable us to more fully reap the benefits of the expertise we have built over the years and give us the capability to expand in new directions even more steadily in the future.”
Perl’s newly created position will see her combining current responsibility for S&S’s company-wide and cross-divisional marketing efforts, including advertising and promotion department, retail marketing, education and library marketing, and integrated marketing, along with the activities of Simon & Schuster Digital. Newly reporting to Perl are Sue Fleming, vp, executive director of content and programming; Ken Judy, vp, technology; David Krivda, vp, product development; Kevin Myers, associate manager, Production; and Adrian Norman, vp, marketing and new products. Commenting on Perl’s promotion,
“In creating this powerful, unified marketing and digital group we will both expand the range of digital efforts that advance our publishing agenda and assure that we are well positioned to promote discovery of our books via all traditional and digital marketing means at our disposal,” ceo Carolyn Reidy said in the announcement, adding about Perl: “Under Liz, our marketing division has been a central, driving force behind our publishing process, partnering with our publishers, sales, digital and operations teams to give our books the best possible chance for success in the marketplace.”
On Hirschhorn’s departure, Reidy said: “Thanks to her leadership and vision the Simon & Schuster Digital team has pioneered new strategies and developed innovative initiatives that have grown our digital reach more than seven hundred percent. Their efforts have been critical in driving discovery and sales of our books and in making our content accessible in nearly every way a connected consumer could conceive of finding it. Thanks to Ellie we have repositioned our business for the digital age and built a team of talented digital professionals upon whom we can rely to keep abreast of the latest in new technologies and to help execute the innovative plans and ideas that give our books the best possible chance of success.”
In other personnel news, Lori Cloud will join Thomas Nelson as vp, marketing, W Publishing Group. Previously she was executive director of client services for G7 Entertainment.
Dennis Stovall has been awarded PubWest’s Jack D. Rittenhouse Award for Lifetime Achievement. Stovall will receive the award at PubWest’s annual conference in February.
In other briefs, BookCon has posted their first featured authors for the 2015 show, including Taye Diggs and Meg Cabot.