Tina Pohlman left her position as publisher of Open Road in late July, the latest veteran executive to leave the company, which she joined in early 2012. Philip Rappaport is acting publisher, and Libby Jordan will join the company in the new role of executive director, marketing operations. Most recently she was vp, marketing at Bookshout, and has been an advisor to Open Road for many years.
The company’s marketing department has been organized into three teams: marketing operations, audience development, and analytics, with Jordan and the other group heads reporting to Mary McAveney. Recent hires on the title marketing team under Jordan include senior director of marketing Hillary Tisman, digital marketing manager Andrew Chapell, and digital marketing coordinator Juliann Fiorentino.
In announcements from the Beijing Book Fair, Richard Charkin said in a speech that Bloomsbury China will launch next year, publishing English-language originals and works in translation, run out of the publisher’s London office.
Distribution
Europa Editions will move their distribution to PGW from Penguin Random House Publisher Services as of February 2018. The deal covers the US, Canada and the rest of the world, except for the UK, Ireland and Italy (with the Ferrante books a big draw in export markets). Europa has been with Penguin and then PRH for the past 10 years, prior to which they were distributed by Consortium. Editor-in-chief Michael Reynolds says in the announcement, “We made a decision based on what was best for our authors, their books, and our business. The Penguin Random House reps, some of whom have been selling our titles for almost 10 years, have done an amazing job getting us to this point, and we’re indebted to them. Now, all of us at Europa are energized by the prospects for growth and the greater visibility that PGW and Ingram offer.”
Separately, Penguin Random House Publisher Services will distribute children’s publisher Holiday House starting May 1, 2018 for the U.S. and December 1, 2018 for Canada and all other territories.