Doris Cooper has been promoted to vp, associate publisher at Clarkson Potter, continuing to report to Pam Krauss. At Blue Rider Press, Sarah Hochman has been promoted to executive editor. Fast-growing digital publisher Entangled has signed a first-look film deal with John Davis’s Davis Entertainment, which produces for 20th Century Fox. Entangled owner and publisher Liz Pelletier will oversee the relationship for the Entangled, and was represented by The Gersh Agency. Cleveland Plain Dealer book editor Karen Long is leaving her position to to manage the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. Arts reporter Joanna Connors will take over as book editor. Author and editor […]
Finance
Briefs: Safari Online Acquires Pub Factory; Foyles Holiday Sales Drop
Safari Books Online acquired PubFactory, which builds systems for delivering books, videos, reference, and other content on the web, from RDW Group’s iFactory division for an undisclosed sum. The deal closed on Decmeber 31, 2012. Under the agreement, Safari Books Online now owns the proprietary software developed by iFactory, which is used to develop scalable and semantically rich electronic libraries for publishers. “For some time now, we’ve admired the PubFactory team’s expertise in building powerful web-based systems for delivering mixed content like books, videos, journals, and reference databases. Their platform will be a robust complement to our growing stable of […]
Bresnick To Take Over for Weil; Blackstone Sold to AudioGO
Paul Bresnick of the Paul Bresnick Agency has a deal in principle to assume control of the Wendy Weil Agency on behalf of the late agent’s estate, he wrote to clients, “to ensure that Wendy’s clients will continue to be represented with the highest professional standards for which the agency has earned its sterling reputation.” Bresnick has started informing authors while the details are finalized “so that there will be no break in the service you’ve come to expect from the agency and your best interests will continue to be protected,” he wrote in a letter shown to us. He […]
Pearson Invests $89.5 Million In Nook Media, After Disappointing Holiday
Nook Media–the entity formed in 2012 that owns Barnes & Noble’s Nook business and their college bookstores–has its second major strategic investor, joining Microsoft: As of December 21 Pearson agreed to invest $89.5 in cash for a 5 percent equity stake. The bookseller paired an announcement about that investment with a preview of holiday sales that indicates “results will be below expectations” and Nook in particular will not meet their previous projections for the fiscal year. Perhaps because of that performance, Pearson is buying in to Nook Media at essentially the same the valuation given to the company when Microsoft […]
HarperCollins Financials Revealed As Part of News Corp Spinoff Procedure
With News Corp.’s proposed spinoff of its publishing unit, aka New News Corp (the other division will be renamed Fox Group) moving forward, the company filed proxy documents with the SEC late Thursday outlining the scope of the proposed spinoff and revealing financial performance data for HarperCollins, after holding back on numbers ever since the close of fiscal 201o. For the most recent quarter, which ended September 30 (their fiscal first quarter), Harper reported sales of $352 million, up 17 percent from $301 million in 2011–largely because of the acqusition of Thomas Nelson in July, at the beginning of the […]
Scholastic to Take Charge Against “Active” Staff Reductions
In yesterday’s conference call with investors following their disappointing second quarter results, Scholastic explained further some of their planned cost-cutting measures. They “have implemented a hiring freeze and are actively reducing staff levels in some areas, such as Book Clubs.” As a result, the company expects to take a “charge of approximately $10 million to $15 million in the second half of the year related to this cost-reduction initiative.” They also will not pay management bonuses for the current fiscal year.