Gruner + Jahr said in a statement Friday that, contrary to earlier indications from August, Bertelsmann will not buy up the remaining 25.1 percent in the company not already under its control. “In our intensive and constructive talks with Bertelsmann, we came to the conclusion that the challenges ahead for G&J can best be mastered together,” Jahr managing director Winfried Steeger, managing director of Jahr Holding said in the statement obtained by Bloomberg. Bertelsmann ceo Thomas Rabe added: “Bertelsmann will continue its more than 40 year long, successful relationship with the Jahr family. We are in a strong position to […]
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Shire Publications’ recently-hired US sales and marketing director Robert Kempe died on Tuesday from complications arising from cancer (just diagnosed in August). The publisher says, “Though Robert joined the company only months ago, his contribution to and impact upon it were incalculable. Swiftly assuming control of Shire in the North American market, he made it immediately and abundantly clear that we had found someone who would not only fulfil our expectations and requirements for the role but exceed them in every regard.” At Harlequin, Miranda Indrigo has taken on the new role of author liaison, concierge services. She was most recently […]
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Hodder & Stoughton announced a reorganization that creates two divisions within the group, “designed to strengthen the appeal and focus of its publishing and to take advantage of structural changes in the publishing industry.” The new division, called John Murray Press, will comprise John Murray, Hodder Faith, Consumer Learning, Two Roads and Saltyard Books–to be run by former Hodder & Stoughton publisher Nick Davies, who is rejoining the company in January as managing director from his current post as Canongate publisher. The Hodder & Stoughton division, comprising Hodder & Stoughton general fiction and non-fiction, Coronet and Sceptre, will have Carolyn Mays […]
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At Dutton, Jamie McDonald has been promoted to publicity manager. Gryphon House, which publishes resource books for parents and teachers of young children, will be distributed by IPG as of January 1, 2013. The last surviving Price Stern Sloan co-founder Larry Sloan, 89, died on Sunday after a brief illness. After PSS was sold to Penguin in 1993, Sloan and Leonard Stern started Tallfellow Press, a business publisher now run by his daughter, Claudia. Before becoming a publisher “he played chess with Humphrey Bogart and wrangled PR for Mae West. He helped handle one of Elizabeth Taylor’s weddings, and his own was announced […]
Avon’s New Facebook App Doubles as Experiment in DRM-Free Purchasing; Amazon’s Whispercast For Bulk Kindle Distribution
Avon launched a Facebook app, Avon Social Reader, which excerpts up to 20 percent of approximately 30 titles and gives Facebook users the ability to share a given book, once browsed, in their News Feed or timeline. The app doubles as an experiment in DRM-free purchasing, allowing users to click through to buy the selected titles at AllRomance.com (though they can also choose to purchase DRM-enabled versions of the books at other online retailers.) The DRM-free editions will be delivered as secure Adobe ePub files. Avon vp, publisher Liate Stehlik said in a statement the DRM-free experiment was “a publishing […]
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Zondervan and Thomas Nelson will merge its fiction divisions into a single unit overseen by vp, publisher Daisy Hutton. Though fiction acquisitions will be “managed centrally,” with editors working across both Thomas Nelson and Zondervan, the publishers will keep separate offices in Grand Rapids, MI and Nashville, TN respectively. Hutton said in a statement: “This is an era of unprecedented challenge and opportunity for Fiction publishing. The Thomas Nelson and Zondervan brands each have a rich heritage. We intend to build on that heritage by developing more distinctive, stronger identities for each brand. We will use the assets that both […]