Wes Miller will move over to Grand Central as senior editor on March 14, focusing on thrillers. He spent the past five years as an editor at Mulholland. Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association marketing director for the past 10 years Brian Juenemann will take over as executive director of the organization on March 1, after Tom Chambliss retires. He worked at the University of Oregon Bookstore for over a decade before joining the PNBA. Sarah Janet has joined Open Road Integrated Media as a marketing manager. Most recently she was a copywriter at Scholastic, and a marketing manager at Penguin. We missed […]
Archives for February 2016
Scribd Drops Unlimited Subscription Model
After various strategic cutbacks in portions of their subscription reading and listening last year, Scribd is taking the expected broader step in revamping their business model. The service announced on Tuesday afternoon that as of mid-March, their offer of unlimited ebook borrowing is going away as they continue to try to “strike the right balance between delivering a great value to our subscribers and achieving long-term sustainability,” according to ceo Trip Adler. Going forward the monthly Scribd subscription will give customers “a choice of three books and one audiobook a month.” The option of “unlimited reading” will be limited to a […]
Pat Conroy Has Pancreatic Cancer
Author Pat Conroy announced on Facebook on Monday, “I have recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. With the help of the wonderful people at M.D. Anderson I intend to fight it hard. I am grateful to all my beloved readers, my friends and my family for their prayers. I owe you a novel and intend to deliver it.” Last summer, he told the Washington Post he had recently finished a YA novel with his daughter Melissa and was working on a new novel about Charleston.” Conroy noted as well in his post: “I celebrated my 70th birthday in October and realized that […]
Rakuten Takes Big Impairment Charge On Kobo
Last Friday Rakuten reported fourth quarter full-year 2015 results. In connection with that report, they took 38.1 billion yen in impairment charges (roughly $332 million), including a significant charge against the Kobo division of 7.8 billion yen (roughly $68 million). The company said that Kobo “has been impacted by a slower start to the rise of the global ebook industry than we originally expected, and hence its business plan fell behind original targets.” At the same time, Rakuten said that OverDrive’s financial performance “has been rapidly improving.” They added that “as a result, we expect EBITDA of our ebook business including […]
Coming Soon: New Data at DBW, and More
Our big seventh-annual Digital Book World is just three weeks away, with the main conference on March 8 and 9 — after our biggest-yet “Day Zero” roster on March 7 featuring the all-day Launch Kids, the brand-new four Mostly Marketing Masterclasses (with Pete McCarthy, Kelly Gallagher, Annie Cushing, and Tom Thompson), the also-new Nielsen half-day conference, and the return of some DBW Workshop favorites. Data is in the spotlight even more than usual this year, as we feature the first-known stage appearance of “Data Guy,” the controversial analyst behind the ongoing Author Earnings reports. To be clear, Data Guy’s DBW presentation […]
People, Awards, Etc.
Donald Roseman has joined Ingram in the new role of vp, retail, focusing on the company’s overall retail business, including national accounts, clubs, field sales, consumer direct fulfillment and Ingram International. Roseman was previously general manager and svp, sales and business development at Goodbaby International Holdings. At David C. Cook, Catherine DeVries has been promoted to publisher of children’s resources. Foreign rights director for Brandt & Hochman Marianne Merola will represent translation rights for the Joy Harris Literary Agency as well as of March 1. Foreword Reviews has hired Seth Dellon as director of circulation and audience development (he was previously digital […]