Michelle R. Ferguson joined Abrams on December 18 in the new role of senior vice president and chief operating officer. Most recently she was svp of workplace strategies for McGraw-Hill. Abrams president and ceo Michael Jacobs said, “Michelle is both a consummate professional and a personable, down-to-earth problem-solver with lots of energy and the desire to both teach and learn. The drive and the passion she’ll bring to Abrams will be a real asset to the company as we continue to evolve.” Distribution Ampersand will distribute Canadian northwest coast regional publisher Hancock House Publishers. Simon & Schuster will distribute Pike and Powder Publishing Group, […]
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Briefs
Harassment Files Both Target and Walmart said that they will drop Mario Batali‘s products — including his cookbooks — from their stores following extensive accusations of sexual harassment. ABC officially fired Batali from their show “The Chew,” and the Food Network dropped plans to create new episodes of his earlier TV show,”Molto Mario.” On Friday, Batali apologized again in his newsletter: “I have made many mistakes and I am so very sorry that I have disappointed my friends, my family, my fans and my team. My behavior was wrong and there are no excuses.” Bookselling Well-known indie That Bookstore in Blytheville […]
Briefs: New PRH UK Office Building, Hay House Puts Smiley Books On Hold, and More
Penguin Random House UK announced a lease agreement for additional new offices at One Embassy Gardens, between London’s Vauxhall and Battersea, “a short walk” from the existing RH UK office at 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road. The new space has 83,400 square feet across five floors, and includes event space on the ground floor. The company had announced in summer 2016 that it would vacate Transworld’s offices in Ealing and Penguin’s offices in the Strand to consolidate their employees. The new space will be ready at the end of 2019, and the two buildings with “both…be home to a mix of Penguin Random […]
People, Etc.
At Dutton, Stephanie Kelly has been promoted to editor and Katie Zaborsky moves up to associate editor. Jennifer Wattley has joined Simon & Schuster Children’s as associate digital & social marketing manager. She was most recently production associate at St. Martin’s Press. Jordan Hamessley has joined New Leaf Literary & Media as literary agent, focusing on children’s picture books, middle grade, young adult, and adult genre fiction. Mark Glesne has joined Thomas Nelson as marketing director. Previously, he was director of marketing and digital commerce at TOL. Harassment Files PBS suspended talk show host Tavis Smiley after allegations came out that Smiley “had engaged in […]
People, Etc.
Harper Children’s has created an new internal editorial team focusing on teen and middle grade fiction. Erica Sussman is editorial director of the team, joined by Kristen Pettit, Emilia Rhodes, Alice Jerman, Elizabeth Lynch and Stephanie Stein. Rachel Zugschwert will join Lerner Publishing Group as group marketing director starting January 1. She was most recently director of marketing for Sparkhouse Family. Jill Braithwaite moves over from group marketing director to the role of publishing director, trade. Jenny Krueger has been promoted to publishing director, school & library. Mark Budde has been promoted to executive vice president, chief operations officer. Jaymie Stewart Wolfe will join […]
People, Etc.
At Chronicle Books, Tessa Ingersoll has been promoted to associate director of international sales. Lynda Zuber Sassi been appointed to director of international and subsidiary rights sales. Linda Iarrera is joining McGill-Queen’s University Press as sales manager. Previously she was manager of institutional sales for US academic library accounts at Wiley. Mark Hillesheim left his position recently as national account manager for Legato. He was the final dedicated Legato employee, and with his departure that distribution unit is formally finished. Following Ingram’s acquisition of the Perseus distribution companies in 2016, Legato and its clients have been fully integrated into PGW. Legato was founded as […]