Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing president Jonathan Karp announced Monday that Touchstone will be eliminated at the end of the year, with its titles for 2019 and beyond reassigned to the Atria and Gallery lists. That decision was made in the wake of Susan Moldow’s forthcoming retirement. “Touchstone’s front list frequently overlaps with our other adult publishers, particularly Atria and Gallery Books,” Karp writes, “and I believe that going forward we will be best served by integrating Touchstone’s talented staff within these imprints.”
Starting in January, executive editor Matthew Benjamin, associate editor Kaitlin Olson, executive editor Trish Todd will move to Atria, along with associate director of publicity Shida Carr and marketing coordinator Isabel DaSilva. Senior editor Cara Bedick, executive editor Lauren Spiegel, and assistant editor Rebecca Strobel will move to Gallery, along with assistant director of publicity Jessica Roth and associate publicist Sydney Morris. Director of publicity for both Touchstone and Scribner Brian Belfiglio will focus exclusively to Scribner, reporting to Nan Graham. Assistant director of marketing Kelsey Manning will also join Scribner. Associate publisher Meredith Vilarello will assume responsibility for managing Touchstone’s backlist. As a result of the restructuring, senior art director Cherlynne Li will leave the company.
Touchstone editor-in-chief Tara Parsons left recently to become associate publisher for Amistad, Harper Español, and the international fiction program in the Harper One Group. In 2012 Touchstone was eliminated as a freestanding division (along with Free Press) and made part of the Scribner Publishing Group. (At the same time, Howard Books was moved from Touchstone to the Atria Publishing Group). A year later, Touchstone publisher Stacy Creamer left the company and the position was not filled, with Scribner group president Susan Moldow serving in the additional role of Touchstone publisher ever since.
NY Magazine interviews Sarah McNally of McNally Jackson, “surprisingly brash and unfiltered for a bookstore owner.” She reports that she is finalizing the lease on a new space, following the news the bookstore will leave its space on Spring Street next June. McNally “hopes to announce the location, along with architecture plans, within a week or two. It’s large enough that she can close Goods for the Study — a stationery store with two downtown branches — and merge them into the new space. She pictures a rare-books room with a fireplace, and she’s already working with an architect on plans for balconies and skylights.” McNally shows off sketches of the new space and declares, “I never thought I was a genius, but in the last week, I’ve discovered that I am. I’ve discovered my own genius in the last week! In this bookstore design…. It’s going to be f—ing heaven on earth.”
CBS announced another management change: Richard Parsons, who was made interim chair of the company’s board in late September, is stepping down due to complications in his treatment for multiple myeloma. Strauss Zelnick has been named the new interim chair.