On the events calendar, the Association of American Publishers announced some of the speakers for their annual meeting on March 19 in New York, focused on The Next Chapter in Protecting IP: Policy, Disruption, Innovation and Sustainability. Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet Rep. Jerry Nadler will discuss Congress’s first comprehensive review of copyright law since 1976 with AAP ceo Tom Allen. Author Jaron Lanier will speak, as will Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey, with a keynote speaker still to be named. Kim Hovey has been promoted to svp, deputy publisher for Ballantine […]
Rowman & Littlefield Says Publishing Unit Has “Best Year” Ever; Sales Rise for Indigo But Earnings Drop Sharply
Rowman & Littlefield announced their 2013 results informally, saying that book and journal sales rose by $4.1 million (or more than 8 percent) to $51 million for the year, helped by their acquisition of Down East Books. Digital products comprised just under 10 percent of publishing sales. They launched an ebookstore within their web site last summer, selling “around 12,000 ebooks” directly. Their distribution companies NBN and NBNInternational had client sales of $79 million in the year. CEO Jed Lyons declared in the announcement: “2013 was our best year since we started the business in 1975.” This time a year […]
People, Etc.
Today’s Penguin Random House announcement presents a unified cross-company executive team in the US finance group (and associated services), under cfo Coram Williams. Random House’s Milena Alberti takes the new position of svp, head of global corporate finance for Penguin Random House. A number of others now formally have responsibilities across Penguin Random House, including: SVP, corporate director, business affairs, John Schline (responsible for contracts and permissions) SVP, worldwide reporting and planning, James Johnston Group controller, Tom Stefanik SVP, royalty operation, Pauline James SVP, credit, payroll & disbursements, William Sinnott SVP, corporate services, Mariella Molloy Meanwhile, executive director, publishing contracts […]
People, Etc.
After more than 20 years at ICM, agent Heather Schroder left the firm recently to start her own agency, Compass Talent. Her first deal under the new banner, with Flatiron Books, is posted today in our deal reports. Kelley Allen has joined Humble Bundle as director of ebooks. Previously she was a senior vendor manager at Kobo and before that, director of ebookstore and publishing relations at Diesel. At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Jen Reynolds has been promoted to director of field sales. At Vintage/Anchor, Claudia Martinez has been promoted to design director. Manager of production and digital distribution at Random […]
People, Etc.
Mary Beth Roche has been promoted to vp, president and publisher at Macmillan Audio, and will continue to oversee the Quick and Dirty Tips website and podcast business as well as the Macmillan Speakers Bureau. JK Rowling is suing the Daily Mail for libel over an article from last fall that “misrepresented her comments” about single motherhood and caused her “great distress and embarrassment.” According to the Guardian, Rowling believes the Mail story, headlined “How JK Rowling’s sob story about her past as a single mother has left the churchgoers who cared for her upset and bewildered”, was “premised on […]
MacAdam/Cage Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Years of financial woes and the death last April of founder David Poindexter culminated in San Francisco-based publisher MacAdam/Cage filing voluntarily for Chapter 7 bankruptcy earlier this month, after failing to find a buyer since fall 2012. The 140-page filing, agreed upon by the Poindexter estate trustee Emeigh Poindexter on December 20 and filed in Northern California bankruptcy court on January 17, lists nearly $1.4 million in liabilities from unsecured creditors (along with an additional $64,000 from secured creditors) against approximately $130,000 in assets, the vast majority of which is book inventory stored at a space operated by Publishers Storage […]