At McClelland & Stewart, Anita Chong has been promoted to the new role of executive editor. Joe Lee has been promoted to associate editor.
Emma Holmes has joined Chronicle Books as head of brand, Ridley’s Games. She was previously at Wild + Wolf.
Distribution
Peachtree Publishing will move their sales and distribution to Penguin Random House Publisher Services a year from now, starting May 1, 2022. PRH already distributes Holiday House and Pixel+Ink, which like Peachtree are owned by Trustbridge. Peachtree current handles their own sales and distribution.
Finance
Primarily on the strength of the expected proceeds from the $349 million sale of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt‘s trade publishing division to News Corp., ratings service Moody’s has upgraded their assessment of the education publisher’s still-risky debt. Moody’s is also encouraged by the latest big restructurings at HMH, which cleared out 22 percent of their employees. At the same time, however, “Moody’s expects 2021-2022 to be challenging for HMH due to potential educational funding pressures at state and local levels.”
As for the other company in that pending sale, News Corp. recently found it easy to borrow an “upsized” $1 billion — after expecting to raise $750 million — at just 3.875 percent interest. Plans for those funds “may include acquisitions.”