Per their recent custom, Book Expo America is trickling out author breakfast announcements. Doris Kearns Goodwin will appear as part of the Adult Book and Author Breakfast on May 30, speaking about her upcoming October book THE BULLY PULPIT: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism. (The other three slots will be announced later.) Veronica Roth, Mary Pope Osborne, Rick Riordan, and a fourth author TBA will speak at the Children’s Author Breakfast on May 31. And Chris Matthews will serve as master of ceremonies for the June 1 Author Breakast, with Helen Fielding (for her untitled Bridget […]
Najafi Companies Sells Off Direct Brands To Mysterious Holding Company
Just one week after a $200 million capital investment in former ICM chairman Jeff Berg’s new agency Resolution was disclosed publicly, Najafi Companies announced Tuesday afternoon that it sold its majority interest in Direct Brands to Pride Tree Holdings “during the last quarter of 2012.” Najafi originally bought Direct Brands, the parent company of Columbia House, Book-of-the-Month Club and other book clubs, from Bertelsmann in July 2008. Then Najafi subsequently purchased DirectGroup France, Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec from Bertelsmann in March 2011. The European entity was not announced as part of the sale to Pride Tree. Curiously, little information is […]
Corporate: Tisch Raised BN Stake to 8.1 Percent; Amazon to Mint Their Own Virtual Money
In an annual SEC filing Tuesday, investor Daniel Tisch disclosed that at some point last year he raised his stake in Barnes & Noble from 5.1 percent (originally disclosed in January 2012) to 8.1 percent, or nearly 4.9 million shares, the holdings he controlled as December 31. Two million shares are registered to Tisch’s personal investment company TowerView, while the rest of the stake is held by Four Partners, another investment company owned by all four Tisch brothers and run by Thomas Tisch, though Daniel Tisch has “sole voting power and sole investment power” over the entire BN holding. Separately, […]
People: Firebrand Acquires Tallent’s eBook Architects, and More
Firebrand Technologies has acquired eBook Architects, the ebook design and production company founded by Joshua Tallent. eBook Architects will continue business as usual from their Austin, TX office, serving their existing customers as well as helping Firebrand to build an “end-to-end service.” Firebrand ceo Fran Toolan says in the announcement, “Working as partners over the last few years, we’ve seen that quality and customer service are the first priorities for Joshua and his team, as they are for ours. Bringing design expertise in-house allows us to fully serve our current and future customers, and furthers our mission of providing services at […]
People: Jordan to Retire from Columbia U. Press
James Jordan will retire as president and director of Columbia University Press in September after more than nine years. During his tenure CUP launched the Columbia Business School Publishing imprint, developed a new book series with the Columbia Journalism Review, and reinvested in life science publishing, economics, recent American history, and international affairs publishing. “Jim has been a very effective steward at the Press during the last nine years,” said Columbia provost John Coatsworth in the announcement. “We are truly indebted to him for the professionalism and vigor that he brought to the table, both as an editor and as […]
People
Editor-at-large and former editor of the New York Times Book Review Charles McGrath is leaving the NYT after taking a buyout, Poynter reports, though he will continue to write occasional pieces for the paper. At Kensington, Vida Engstrand has been promoted to assistant director of publicity, while Peter Senftleben moves up to associate editor. Julia O’Halloran has joined DK Publishing as publicist. Previously she was a publicist at William Morrow. Suzy Lucas has been hired as prize administrator for the UK’s new Literature Prize. She was literature consultant to the BFI’s Film Fund. Lucas began her career at Bloomsbury and went […]