On Tuesday, the UK’s Sky News reported that Pearson chairman Glen Moreno is “preparing to leave the company later this year” after 10 years there. Their sources say that Pearson has retained a headhunter to oversee the recruitment of a new chair. (It had been announced previously that Moreno will become chairman of Virgin Money later this year.) A Pearson spokesperson said, “Glen Moreno continues as Pearson’s chair and we have not begun an active search for a successor.”
At Viking/Penguin, Meredith Burks has been promoted to publicity manager, while Annie Harris moves up to associate publicist.
Awards
Helen MacDonald‘s memoir H IS FOR HAWK won the overall Costa Book of the Year Award. Grove/Atlantic is due to publish the book, which also won the UK’s Samuel Johnson Prize, in early March.
In announcing the winner, chair of the judging panel Robert Harris spoke out against declining coverage of books by the BBC: “It is an absolute disgrace that the BBC, a publicly-funded organization, shouldn’t do a bit more to help our books business,” Harris said. He told the head of the organization, “if you’re watching this on BBC News: do a little bit more for the book trade, please.”
Harris also took swipes at the rival Booker Prize. “It’s not a prize for books that people think they ought to read, but for books that people want to read.” Harris said later, “There’s been a sort of naivety on the part of British publishing industry. It seems to me British publishers have invested too much in the Booker and put all their eggs in that particular basket, and it’s their own fault in a way if it’s now being carted off to New York.”
Digital
Blinkbox Books formally confirmed that they will indeed migrate their customers’ ebook libraries over to Kobo before the service closes for good on February 28. (Highlights and other personal annotations will not transfer over.) The company says it will send customers email with detailed instructions on how to transfer their ebooks.