Kathleen Doherty, vp and publisher, Tor Teen & Starscape will retire on June 14, after 34 years with Tor/Forge. Doherty joined the company in 1985 to start the special sales department, eventually launching Tor Classics, Tor Kids, and more. After she leaves, senior editors Susan Chang and Melissa Frain and editor Ali Fisher will report to Fritz Foy until a successor is named.
At Arcadia Publishing, Christen Thompson rejoins the company on April 29 in the new position of director of special projects. (She is also the co-owner of the North Charleston bookstore, Itinerate Literate, which opened last year.) And Cameron Haines has rejoined the company as production editor. In promotions, Leigh Scott takes the new role of independent sales manager-strategic growth and will be the team leader for field sales reps, as Mike Nieken is promoted to independent sales manager east and Elysia Walton is now independent sales manager west.
Separately, Arcadia ceo David Steinberger announced to staff that the company will move warehouse operations to RR Donnelley, which has served as their printer through their facility in Columbia, SC for many years. Arcadia’s warehouse was sold prior to the publisher’s acquisition by Lezen Acquisition last May. The transition will be completed during the summer, and Steinberger writes that “every member of our warehouse team will be invited to interview to join the expanded team” at Donnelley.
Publishers looking for options in a persistently tight printing market may be heartened to know that legacy Donnelley is still competitive in book printing and fulfillment, even as their book-focused spinoff LSC Communications prepares to merge with Quad. Steinberger comments, “We made a strategic decision to consolidate printing and warehousing with a single partner which, by using digital printing technology, would enable us to keep our entire 15,000 title backlist of local books available to ship at all times. We needed to find a partner that had the capacity to scale with us as we grow rapidly, and could also meet our print quality standards. We went through a very deliberate process before selecting RRD which has done outstanding work as Arcadia’s printing partner for many years.”
Bookselling
Garrison Keillor is selling his St. Paul bookstore Common Good Books to St. Paul native Nick Ballas. Keillor, who opened the store 12 years ago, announced in January that he was putting the store on the market and leaving town. Ballas plans to rename the store Next Chapter Booksellers and make “some minor interior changes.”
Awards
Penguin Random House was named one of the top two mid-size employers by Forbes Magazine for the second year in a row. Madeline McIntosh, ceo of Penguin Random House U.S., said, “We can be really proud that Forbes once again recognizes that Penguin Random House U.S. is a family of colleagues who not only passionately believe in the future of books and reading, but also care as deeply about each other.”