Bonnier Books UK will launch the nonfiction children’s imprint Hatch Press in January 2024, planning to publish about 30 titles a year. The line, focused on “hands-on learning, and art and activity titles for fledgling readers between 3-12 years old,” is led by Kieran Hood. The imprint is based on republished editions of the backlist of Salariya, the rights to which Bonnier acquired last November after the publisher was liquidated.
Murphy to Leave Harper; Stehlik to Add Oversight of Children’s Division
President and publisher of Harper Children’s Suzanne Murphy “will be leaving the company to pursue other interests” at the end of September, the company announced. President and publisher for the Morrow Group Liate Stehlik will take on additional responsibilities, serving as president and publisher for Harper Children’s as well. Murphy, who joined the company in 2015, says in the announcement, “It has been an honor to work with our amazingly talented authors and illustrators, my brilliant, creative, and passionate teams across the Children’s division, and valued colleagues throughout the company. It also has been a highlight of my career in […]
Penguin Random House Will Reduce Office Space, “Encourage” Employees to Return “More Frequently”
Penguin Random House interim ceo Nihar Malaviya wrote to US employees on Tuesday about adjustments to their policy on office attendance as well as their use of space at 1745 Broadway. Notably, the company will “reduce our footprint at 1745 Broadway this fall” in order to “save costs on the spaces that are not being used today.” The company declined to indicate how many floors they expect to vacate. (In 2016, PRH took over all of the office condo space from floors 2 through 23, with the exception of the 20th floor, in a lease extension running through mid-2033.) Malaviya […]
One More Author Class Action Suit Against OpenAI; Their First Reply
Author plaintiffs Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman, David Henry Wang, Matthew Klam and Rachel Louise Snyder are the latest to file suit against OpenAI in Federal Court in California’s Northern District for San Francisco, seeking class action status “arising from OpenAI’s clear infringement of their intellectual property.” The suit is substantially similar to ones filed earlier this summer — first by named plaintiffs Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad, and then by lead plaintiffs Sarah Silverman, Christopher Golden, and Richard Kadrey. (The latter filed a separate suit against Meta for their AI training.) Both of the earlier suits were brought by the […]
Internet Archive Appeals Their Big Loss
Following US District Court Judge John Koeltl’s clear, unequivocal and overwhelming finding the Internet Archive guilty of “wholesale copying and unauthorized lending” of publishers’ books, the IA filed notice of appeal on the inauspicious day of Monday, September 11. Judge Koeltl’s ruling was deeply rooted in Second Circuit precedent, including multiple cases already adjudicated by the Second Circuit of Appeals, which has made crystal clear that there is no digital first sale doctrine. Internet Archive director of library services Chris Freeland admits in a posted statement, “We know this won’t be easy.” And he reasserts one of their core arguments […]
CorreX In Real Time
The pre-publication rollout of Walter Isaacson’s Tuesday release ELON MUSK took an unexpected turn after a sensational disclosure in one excerpt in the Washington Post was refuted by Musk himself and then corrected by Isaacson. Isaacson billed the excerpt as “the inside story of how Musk used Starlink to help Ukraine, then pulled back one tense Friday night.” In the incident in question, “The Ukrainian military was attempting a sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet based at Sevastopol in Crimea by sending six small drone submarines packed with explosives, and it was using Starlink to guide them to the […]