Harlequin announced that it is realigning under two new divisions: the Harlequin Trade Publishing Group, which will be responsible for all trade publishing activities, and Harlequin Brand Group, which combines their series publishing, Carina Press and brand development. Loriana Sacilotto serves as evp, publisher of Harlequin Trade and will lead strategic publishing, editorial, marketing and publicity for all Harlequin Trade imprints. Reporting to Sacilotto are Margaret Marbury, vp editorial who will focus on adult imprints; Heather Connor, vp publicity & trade communications; Bess Braswell, publishing director at Inkyard Press; and a new associate publisher, adult imprints, for which they are […]
Archives for July 2019
Audible Plans to Show Text Alongside Audio
Audible is sharing details about a forthcoming initiative called Audible Captions, a new feature coming in September that will show listeners the text of a book as they listen. Calling it “captions” is rather misleading, perhaps intentionally, since they intend to “caption” the entire work. In other words, they will scroll a full ebook alongside the audiobook. But have no fear, this isn’t the actual text licensed from publishers and authors. They have gone to trouble of computer-generating a “transcription” from the audio file, “harnessing Amazon Web Services’ cloud computing infrastructure and artificial intelligence.” Audible subscribers and students will be […]
Germany Wins Some Marketplace Terms Improvements from Amazon, As EU Investigates Bigger Issues
Germany’s Federal Cartel Office accepted a number of “concessions” from Amazon and closed the “abuse of dominance proceedings” they started last November, while the bigger and more volatile charges have been taken up by the European Commission “to assess whether Amazon’s use of sensitive data from independent retailers who sell on its marketplace is in breach of EU competition rules.” Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said they will “take a very close look at Amazon’s business practices and its dual role as marketplace and retailer.” So far, “Based on the Commission’s preliminary fact-finding, Amazon appears to use competitively sensitive information – about […]
People, Etc.
John McKay has joined the Association of American Publishers (AAP) as senior vice president, communications. He was most recently an executive officer with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Previously, he was a vp of communications for both NBC Universal and Sony Music Entertainment. Nancy Ellwood has joined Arcadia Publishing to launch a new local publishing program for children. She was previously editorial director at DK. Arcadia president and ceo David Steinberger said in the release, “Retailers everywhere are telling us that their customers are hungry for local content, and we keep getting asked to add a hyper-local program for […]
Investor Sues Barnes & Noble Education Over Blocked Board Nominations, Rejected Buyout Offers
Barnes & Noble Education, which has worked hard to perform even more poorly than the Barnes & Noble retail operation since the two split apart almost 4 years ago, now finds itself the focus of its own strange potential sale. Bay Capital Finance, which appears to be focused on real estate development, says it has been trying trying to acquire the company outright since earlier this year. On Monday, they filed suit in Delaware’s Chancery Court, asking for their nominations of five independent directors to the BNED board to be put before shareholders at the annual meeting. Bay Capital says […]
People, Etc.
Matthew Benjamin has joined Harmony and Rodale Books as executive editor, reporting to Diana Baroni. He was most recently at Atria. Christopher Sergio will join Holt as vp, group creative director, starting August 19 and reporting to Ben Shrank. He was previously vp art director at Penguin Random House. He will oversee the creative product at both Holt and Metropolitan. Nick Stewart joins Grove Atlantic as digital marketing manager. Previously he was marketing manager at Penguin Random House. Jamil Zaidi joins Chronicle Books as trade sales representative, Pacific Northwest. Previously he was the Pacific Northwest representative for Chickman Associates. Emily […]