Publisher of the Golden Books Young Readers Group Kate Klimo is stepping down as of March 31, Random House Children’s president and publisher Chip Gibson announced internally on Friday. Klimo has worked at Random House since 1984, and spearheaded the acquisition of Golden in 2001. She will be director of creative development at Media Assets Management Associates, where she “will continue turning our books into great TV shows.” (Klimo helped develop The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! into a PBS Kids show and “has six other shows based on our books in development.”) Gibson notes, “she […]
Distribution
People, Etc.
At Goldberg McDuffie Communications, Kathleen Zrelak has been promoted to vp, director of publicity. Author of PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOM Kyung-Sook Shin has won the Man Asian Literary Prize, receiving $30,000. Translator Chi-Young Kim also received US$5,000. The Bancroft Prize for history is being shared this year by Anne Hyde’s Empires, Nations and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800-1860; Daniel Rodgers’ Age of Fracture; and Tomiko Brown-Nagin’s Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement. As part of the relocation of Bonnier’s Weldon Owen from Australia to London, Martina Challis has been […]
People, Etc.
Former Macmillan president Brian Napack will join media private equity firm Providence Equity Partners as a senior advisor. He will also join the board of educational software company Blackboard, Inc. Napack “will work with Providence to identify and manage new investment opportunities in education and media and to support the firm’s existing portfolio companies.” He left Macmillan at the end of 2011. Managing Director and head of Providence’s education practice Peter Wilde says, “Brian has an exceptional track record of launching and leading businesses operating at the intersection of technology and media, education and entertainment, an area where we are […]
Corporate: Open Road to Distribute Through Ingram
Open Road, which has been working with Ingram to make some of their print-on-demand editions available on the Espresso book machine, has struck a larger relationship in which Lightning Source will manufacture their titles available for POD and Ingram Publisher Services will sell and distribute those books, starting in March. Open Road has print rights to their line of ebook originals (roughly 15 to 20 titles a year), as well as a small number of previously out-of-print titles. The new relationship will start with about 20 books.
A Little More On IPG and Amazon
The story of Amazon removing IPG clients’ ebooks from sale spread quickly yesterday. Among additional details, IPG president Mark Suchomel told Crain’s Chicago and the WSJ that ebooks comprise less than 10 percent of the distributor’s revenues. And he told the Chicago Tribune “that the e-books sold through Amazon’s Kindle tablet account for about 5 percent of the company’s business.” (Their lists are not particularly deep in leading ebook categories like popular fiction and romance.) According to IPG’s website, they had 4,444 titles available in Kindle format. Their EPUB title count is about 500 titles lower, hence Suchomel’s exhortation to […]
Hachette Wins Back Disney and Hyperion Distribution Business
Hachette has won back distribution for the Disney Book Group and Hyperion, which had moved to HarperCollins in 2007. Under the preliminary agreement between the parties, “the move to Hachette is contemplated to take place in Spring 2013.” Hachette already distributes Disney’s Marvel unit and that relationship has been extended as well. HBG took over Canadian sales and distribution for Disney in spring 2011 after the bankruptcy of HB Fenn.