Quarto has reshuffled its board of directors just two months after Laurence Orbach was reinstalled himself as executive chairman. Orbach will now step down from that position to become a non-executive director, while Andy Cumming, who joined Quarto’s board in March after 17 years at Lloyds, is promoted to chairman and senior independent non-executive director. In addition, coo Ken Fund has also been appointed as executive director of the board.
Acquisitions
Rowman & Littlefield has acquired Pineapple Press, a Sarasota, Florida-based company specializing in “all things Florida”, including art, folklore, gardening, history, nature and travel. Pineapple Press, founded in 1982 by June and David Cussen, will become an imprint of Globe Pequot Press. Ingram Publisher Services will stop sales and distribution of all Pineapple Press books as of July 13, with the National Book Network (NBN), Rowman & Littlefield’s sister distribution company, handling both roles as of July 14. Ingram’s CoreSource will continue to manage the Pineapple Press’s ebooks.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group president Jed Lyons said in the announcement: “The addition of Florida’s leading regional publisher, Pineapple Press, enhances our regional trade program and adds hundreds of first-rate books on the fastest growing state in the nation….The Cussens have built a wonderful business which we will do our best to preserve and grow in the future under the Pineapple name.” David & June Cussen added: “We are happy to know that all our treasured books and authors will be in good hands. We trust that Rowman & Littlefield will carry through with the philosophy that we started with in 1982: publishing the best of all Florida has to offer with its long history and precious natural setting.”
Speculations
The WSJ looks at publishers & producers eyeing book, film, and television prospects after this week’s rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a Northern Thailand cave. “In the hands of a good writer there are layers to this story that we don’t yet know,” Celadon Book publisher Jamie Raab told the paper. “The question is whether we will we learn anything in the book that we aren’t getting in these incredibly dramatic accounts in the media. Months from now, will it still captivate an audience?”
While some in the industry expressed optimism should a proposal come in (Raab said she hadn’t seen any, but “suspected they would be arriving shortly”) others, like ICM co-president Binky Urban, had doubts. “It’s a great story but I’m not sure I’d want to read 300 pages about it…It seems more like a magazine story. Now, having said that, somebody will sell it for $1 million.” And Spiegel & Grau publisher Cindy Spiegel felt a successful proposal hinged on the participation of the soccer coach: “It would have to focus on the Buddhist training that enabled him to give the kids the courage and stamina they needed to survive.”