Bonnier will move operations for children’s illustrated reference publisher Weldon Owen from Sydney, Australia to London early in 2012 as part of its consolidation with Hot Key Books, whose managing director Sarah Odedina will also oversee Weldon Owen. Six or seven new staffers will join the merged company on the editorial, production and design side; rights staffers are already based in London. Bonnier ceo Richard Johnson explained in a statement that the move owed to “a significant part of Weldon Owen’s market being in Europe and with the high Australian dollar to the US dollar we feel that a move to London will be in the best long term interests of the company. This also plays to our wider strategy of becoming much larger in the UK.”
At Kensington, Darla Freeman has been promoted to Associate Director of Sales.
New York Times Book Review deputy editor Bob Harris, a 29-year veteran of the paper, was among staffers who took a buyout late last week, per the NY Observer.
Publisher of Artisan Books Ann Bramson has been honored by Food Arts Magazine’s Silver Spoon Award for her contribution to publishing “beautiful, highly intelligent cookbooks.”