Rob Kirkpatrick will join Dey Street Books as senior editor on May 18. Previously he was senior editor at Thomas Dunne Books. Emily Cunningham will join Penguin Press as editor on June 9. Previously she was an editor at Harper. At Penguin Random House Children’s sales group, Jacqueline Engel has been promoted to vp, group sales director and director, field sales & business development, Penguin Young Readers. In addition, Mark Santella moves up to vp, group sales director and director, mass merchandise sales, Random House Children’s Books. Both Engel and Santella will report to Felicia Frazier. Nick Elliot has joined […]
Audio
People
Bloomsbury UK has had to “restructure and reduce the costs of its trade editorial department” due to “the changing publishing environment,” and senior commissioning editor Bill Swainson‘s job is being eliminated at the end of June. Former longtime Barnes & Noble staff member, most recently as vp, books and digital strategy and chief product officer for digital education Jade Roth has joined UK-based Kortext as senior vice president. She will “use her extensive experience in the North American higher education market to support the team’s international expansion.” Dean of Library Services at Austin (Texas) Community College Julie Todaro, PhD. has been elected […]
Scribd Adds Penguin Random House…For Audio
Up until now Penguin Random House has not participated in any of the major ebook subscription offerings, but the publisher has a new exclusive with Scribd for audiobooks. [N.B.: Scribd described the deal as exclusive, but PRH noted after this ran “that Scribd is not the only retailer offering audiobooks on a subscription basis. Our audio titles have been available for a number of years via a multiple retailers with various subscription models, including Audible, Audiobooks.com, and Overdrive in the library market, among others.”] PRH is making available more than 9,000 audio titles for unlimited listening as part of Scribd’s subscription program (which […]
People, Etc.
At the Crown Publishing Group, Nidhi Berry has been promoted to associate manager, foreign rights for the Ten Speed, Clarkson Potter, Potter Style, Potter Craft, and Pam Krauss Books lists. In addition, Courtney Snyder moves up to associate director, domestic rights. At Orbit, Laura Fitzgerald has been promoted to online marketing manager and Lindsey Hall has been promoted to assistant editor. At Yen Press, Stephanie Lee has been promoted to assistant editor. At the Fischer Harbage Agency, Christopher Hermelin has been promoted to associate agent. Former vp, director of subsidiary rights at Crown Linda Kaplan has launched Readmore Literary Management, […]
Blinkbox Books, Bardowl to Shut Down
The week begins with the closing of two UK-based digital companies. Blinkbox Books, Tesco’s ebook service, will cease operations by the end of February after failing to find a buyer. The company said, “We’ve learnt a lot since launching the service and whilst we saw encouraging levels of take up, we believe that we can do more for our customers by focusing on our core business….Our focus now is on the colleagues affected and our customers.” Up to 60 jobs are in jeopardy as a result. Tesco was reported to have been in exclusive talks with Waterstones a possible sale of the platform. Tesco […]
Recorded Books Acquires Tantor Media
Recorded Books has acquired audio publisher Tantor Media, with a catalog of approximately 5,000 titles. Sale terms were not officially disclosed but the NYT reports the price was “about $25 million.” Private equity firm Wasserstein & Co. acquired Recorded Books from Haights Cross Communications a little less than a year ago, and then they bought HighBridge Audio from Workman Publishing in April, which was integrated into Recorded Books. Wasserstein co-managing partner Anup Bagaria tells the NYT, “We’ve taken a sleepy business and really accelerated growth” through acquisitions and organic improvements. Tantor will continue to operate out of its current Old Saybrook, CT facility. Jones Day […]