Rodale Books publisher Steve Perrine is leaving the company after more than 20 years along with Men’s Health editor-in-chief and general manager of Rodale Books and the Healthy Living Group Dave Zinczenko. The NY Post reports the two men “are said to be teaming up on a new venture” while ceo Maria Rodale told the paper Zinczenko’s departure “was a mutual decision, but we initiated the discussion.”
Former literary agent at ICM Kate Lee has joined online publishing platform startup Medium as director of content in New York, where she will “be building a small team to help her.” They write: “Kate’s job is to help get great stuff onto Medium. She’ll do this in a variety of ways—by discovering, encouraging, soliciting, commissioning, and contextualizing interesting ideas, authors, and institutions.”
Director, product management for Nook Wendy Bronfin will join Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as svp consumer products and marketing later this month, Publishing Trends reports.
Australia’s Scribe Publications will set up a UK operation next year, with Faber Factory Plus handling sales and distribution. They intend to publish 20 to 30 books a year in the UK, starting in June 2013. Rina Gill will be their UK publicity director. She was previously publicity director for Corvus, deputy publicity director for Cornerstone, and publicity director for Century.
Founder and publisher, Henry Rosenbloom says in the announcement, “This is a big step for a small company to take, but the reasons for it are compelling, on both the buying and selling sides. It will give us the capacity to acquire UK and Commonwealth rights in some overseas-originated titles that would otherwise be denied us; and it also means that many more of our books, which come from many sources, will be available in much of the English-reading world.”
Hastings Entertainment reported results for its third quarter early Monday morning. The company reported a net loss of 8 million (or 98 cents a share), while overall book comps decreased 1.4 percent for the quarter (as compared to 4.5 percent a year ago) helped by the strong sales of the 50 Shades series as well as digital books and accessories, but affected by “book signings and promotional events taking place during the same quarter of the prior fiscal year.”
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