Anna deVries joined Picador as senior editor earlier in November, acquiring both nonfiction and fiction hardcovers and trade paperback originals, while also assisting in the publishing of paperback reprints. Most recently, she had worked at Scribner for seven years. At Kobo, Pieter Swinkels has been promoted to vp, acquisition and “will be leading Kobo’s global publisher outreach and content acquisition team” from their Toronto headquarters. Julia Pastore has joined Demos Health as executive editor where she will help grow their list of trade health and self-help titles. She was a senior editor at Crown Archetype and Harmony Books.
Free
Remembrances: Davis, Rosenblatt, Geiser and O’Connor
Chief financial officer of Random House Anne Davis, 50, passed away Monday after a battle with cancer. CEO Markus Dohle writes: “Anne was more than a brilliant CFO. She was our anchor, our heart, our inspiration. She not only made our company much more successful, she made it a better place to work, and for those of us who knew her personally, she made us better people.” She joined the company in 1995 as assistant controller. Hachette Book Group senior national accounts manager working with B&N Judy Rosenblatt passed away last weekend from ovarian cancer. A longtime member of the […]
McGraw-Hill Education Sale to Apollo Finally Confirmed, for $2.5 Billion
McGraw-Hill is finally unloading their shrinking education publishing division–which is what their shareholders preferred all along–selling it to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $2.5 billion. The deal is expected to close quickly, either before the end of the year or in early 2013. (Apollo co-founder Leon Black’s family recently purchased Phaidon.) Apollo has been considered the leading prospect since July. McGraw Hill’s stock rose this morning on relief that fixing the education division will become someone else’s problem. Even though the company will take a non-cash impairment charge in the fourth quarter of $450 to $550 million related […]
People, Etc.
Ellen Holgate will move to Bloomsbury UK Children’s as editorial director for fiction in mid-January. She is currently senior editor at Hodder Children’s. Once again, the Obama family celebrated “small business Saturday” with a bookstore shopping trip. This time they visited One More Page Books in Arlington, VA, where the White House says President Obama bought 15 children’s books to give as gifts. (The president indicated he had prepared a shopping list that he consulted on his Blackberry while in the store.) Kensington and Chelsea became the second London borough to approve plans to demolish the Earl’s Court exhibition center […]
People, Etc.
The literary director of Albert Bonniers Forlag in Sweden Jonas Axelsson has elected to step down, effective immediately. Associate publishing director of Bonnier Group’s trade publishing division Jesper Monthan will take over on aa temporary basis while a search is conducted. Axelsson has also resigned from his other responsibilities within the Bonnier Group, including leading the Bonnier Group Agency. Frank Berrios has been promoted to editor for the Random House Children’s and Golden Books licensed publishing group, where Courtney Carbone has moved up to assistant editor. The Costa Awards shortlists were announced across five categories. Booker winner Hilary Mantel is […]
People, Etc.
Rodale Books publisher Steve Perrine is leaving the company after more than 20 years along with Men’s Health editor-in-chief and general manager of Rodale Books and the Healthy Living Group Dave Zinczenko. The NY Post reports the two men “are said to be teaming up on a new venture” while ceo Maria Rodale told the paper Zinczenko’s departure “was a mutual decision, but we initiated the discussion.” Former literary agent at ICM Kate Lee has joined online publishing platform startup Medium as director of content in New York, where she will “be building a small team to help her.” They […]