Kobo has hired Marina Glogovac as chief marketing officer. She is the former ceo of online dating service Lavalife. Denise Little will join the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency this month. She was formerly executive editor at Tekno Books, head of Kensington”s Denise Little Presents imprint, and a buyer for Barnes & Noble. She will represent romance, paranormal, mystery, thriller, science-fiction/fantasy, non-fiction, Christian books, and horror. Eric Mullett has moved over to marketing director at Thomas Nelson Fiction (he was running marketing for their gift book division), and Katie Bond has been promoted to publicity manager. Heather Cadenhead has been hired […]
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People, Etc.
Executive chairman of Australia and New Zealand bookstore giant RedGroup Retail (comprising Angus & Robertson; Borders ANZ; and Whitcoulls) Rod Walker is leaving his job. He took over after the Borders acquisition. The company says they have obtained the waiver from their loan covenants that they were seeking in the wake of reduced EBITDA of $25 million for the current fiscal year. Owners Pacific Equity Partners indicate they are “exploring a range of options to strengthen its balance sheet longer term.”TVNZ Timber Press has hired Andrew Beckman as their new editorial director, starting September. He was formerly the editorial director […]
People and Distribution
Kobo has announced the opening of their New York office, focused on publisher relations andUS content acquisition. Ami Greko joins the company as senior manager, vendor relations, books. She was director of business development for GetGlue after having managed digital marketing for Macmillan. Jan Ehrlich has been hired as director, newspapers and magazines. She was most recently director of business development for Texterity. Kobo notes in the announcement, “Publisher relationships are something we take very seriously at Kobo. Our work with US-based publishers is growing at a frantic pace as we continue to add new vendors, deepen our retail relationships, […]
Bloomsbury Does Better with Publishing than Investments
Sales at Bloomsbury rose 4.5 percent in the first half of the year, to 36.8 million pounds, though pre-tax profit fell by a little more than half, at 949,000 pounds. Profits on the publishing side fell by 23 percent, mostly due to the inclusion of the new Bloomsbury Professional unit (based on their acquisition of law and tax publisher Tottel), “which is typically loss making in the first half of the year.” Investment income on the mountain of residual Harry Potter cash declined much more sharply, down from 842,000 pounds to 180,000 pounds, reaffirming that the company is much better […]
People, Etc.
At William Morrow, Peter Hubbard has been promoted to senior editor. At Touchstone, Lauren Spiegel has been promoted to associate editor. In the Eataly food and wine center opening at the end of August in the former Toy Building on lower Fifth Avenue in New York, led by Lidia and Joseph Bastianich and Mario Batali, Rizzoli Bookstore will be the exclusive bookseller. They will also manage book signings by chefs giving classes and demonstrations in the space. Tyrus Books, founded last year, announced that they are acquiring fellow crime fiction publisher Busted Flush Press. Busted Flush publisher David Thompson “will […]
This Time Borders Hires, and More
Borders has hired Michele Delahunty-Cloutier as evp, chief merchandising officer, overseeing merchandising, marketing and supply chain and reporting to Mike Edwards. Most recently she was brand president for Chico’s FAS, and she had been svp, general merchandise manager for Ann Taylor Stores. Borders has also named Eric Kovats regional vp for the Southeast and Beatrice Vicente as regional vp for the West Coast. Kovats was regional vp at Stores for Heartland Automotive Services, “the largest franchisee of Jiffy Lube Stores in the country.” In other personnel news, at Crown, Rachel Berkowitz has been promoted to manager, foreign rights, and Nidhi […]