Veronica Jordan has been promoted to executive vice president, general counsel of Simon & Schuster, reporting to president and ceo Carolyn Reidy. She succeeds Hazel-Ann Mayers, who moved over in February to evp, chief business ethics & compliance officer at CBS Corporation. Jennifer Weidman has been promoted to senior vice president, deputy general counsel. Reidy said, “It speaks volumes about Simon & Schuster and the overall strength of our legal department that in Veronica Jordan and Jennifer Weidman we have two such experienced, versatile and well-qualified attorneys in-house and at the ready to take on new and greater responsibilities in […]
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People, Etc.
Karen Murgolo has joined Aevitas Creative Management as an agent. Previously she was editorial director at Grand Central Life & Style. At Sourebooks, Heather Hall has been promoted to associate managing editor and Cassie Gutman to senior production editor. Twenty-First Century Books editorial director Domenica DiPiazza is retiring on March 29. She has been with the company for more than 27 years. Also at Twenty-First Century Books, Shaina Olmanson is being promoted to associate editorial director starting April 1. Copyright Law With a vote of 348 to 274, the European Parliament has passed the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, […]
Bookselling: Daunt Responds to Waterstones Petition, and More
Waterstones managing director James Daunt responded further — and more skeptically — to the petition signed by more than 4,000 employees asking the company to increase pay for booksellers. Daunt said, “There’s a long gap between wanting to do something and it being remotely sensible,” adding, “If you raise the bottom level really significantly, then everybody all the way up the company has to go up, and then we go bust, which isn’t very helpful.” A group of 1,300 writers have also backed the campaign, but Daunt says they’re “[preaching] to the converted” and the company is “simply not profitable […]
LifeWay to Close All 170 Physical Stores
LifeWay Christian Resources announced that will close all of its 170 physical stores by the end of this year. Acting CEO Brad Waggoner said in a statement, “While we had hoped to keep some stores open, current market projections show this is no longer a viable option. The decision to close our local stores is a difficult one.” (In January, the company had indicated they would close a portion of their store base.) The company says, “The timing of store closings will vary depending on local circumstances.” They will continue to sell online, pitched as a “strategic shift of resources […]
Amazon Blinks, A Little
Under political pressure, Amazon is now giving third-party merchants on its US site the same break they provided to European merchants way back in 2013: The company has dropped price parity or most favored nations conditions that blocked sellers from offering their goods at lower prices on other websites. Amazon confirmed the change, without making any statement about it. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal had written to the Assistant Attorney General for the Anti-Trust Division about this very issue last December. On Monday, Blumenthal commented, “Amazon’s wise and welcome decision comes only after aggressive advocacy and attention that compelled Amazon to […]
People: New Hire, New Contracts at Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble has hired Carlo Pochintesta as chief information officer, reporting to cfo Allen Lindstrom, starting today. He was CIO at Rag & Bone Holdings. More intriguingly, with no sign that the bookseller has any intention of looking for a full-time ceo before completing their “strategic review” of a potential sale (now more than five months old), they signed new employment agreements with ranking executives Timothy Mantel, William Wood and Mary Ellen Keating, and a revised agreement with Lindstrom, filed with the SEC last Friday. Everyone has a base salary of around $600,000, plus target bonuses of about 50 […]