Chairman emeritus of Simon Property Group and owner of the Indiana Pacers as well as co-owner of Tecolote Books in Montecito, CA Herb Simon has purchased Kirkus Reviews. Chief executive of Calendar Holdings and the other partner in that bookstore (as well as former Barnes & Noble employee) Marc Winkelman will be ceo of the new Kirkus Media and hold a small stake in the operation, with Elaine Szewczyk and Eric Liebetrau remaining in their leadership roles. He indicated to the NYT that “the company would continue to publish Kirkus as a print magazine while beefing up its digital offerings. […]
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Don Fehr joins Trident Media Group as a literary agent. Most recently he was editorial director at Kaplan Publishing. Agency chairman Robert Gottlieb calls it “a wonderful opportunity to combine his extraordinary experiences in publishing, his unique relationships with authors, and his ability to create new business opportunities.” At Free Press, Leah Miller has been promoted to associate editor, reporting to editor-in-chief Dominick Anfuso and continuing to work with Dominick on his books as well as those of other editors, while also acquiring for her own list. At PublicAffairs, Tessa Shanks has been promoted to publicity manager. At Harlequin, executive […]
People and Imprints
Michael Campbell joins becker&mayer! in the new position of vp, sales, marketing & new business development. He has previously been director of sales and marketing at three Pacific Northwest publishers: Martingale, Timber Press, and most recently Graphic Arts. Ryan Kelly joins the company as international sales associate (he worked in specialty retail sales for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and Amy Levenson has been promoted to group manager, international sales. Debbie Harmsen joins BenBella Books as editor-in-chief of the general nonfiction line. She has worked for magazines, newspapers and book publishers, most recently editing travel guides at Random House. HCI Books has […]
Discussing Ideas to Help Stores Survive
Both formally and informally, booksellers at the ABA’s Winter Institute were talking about, and listening to, ideas for how stores can preserve their essential role during the digital transition and drive revenue from more than sales of printed books. On Wednesday Dan Clancy from Google tried to open the door to brainstorming how Google can help retailers sell ebooks from physical stores. The starting principle is that “when you buy a digital book from a physical store, it needs to be simple.” A sample notion was to ask, what if it’s as simple as taking a digital picture of the […]
People
At Clarkson Potter, Aliza Fogelson has been promoted to senior editor, after five years there, and Angelin Borsics has been promoted to assistant editor, both still reporting to Doris Cooper. Ashley Phillips has been promoted to assistant editor, continuing to report to Rica Allannic and Rosy Ngo. In the Knopf and Crown editorial department at Random House Children’s Books, Michele Burke has been promoted to editor and Allison Wortche has been promoted to associate editor. Former longtime editor of Travel & Leisure Golf and a founding editor of Men’s Journal, John Atwood is joining Rodale Books an executive editor, reporting […]
Another New Data Set on eReading
NPD Group released highlights of a survey of ereader owners from November in which 93 percent were either “very” or “somewhat” satisfied with the devices. But 39 percent could not find every book they wanted as an ebook, with only 46 percent “largely happy” with the ebooks available. Thirty percent still use at least one other device, like a computer or smartphone, for reading, and 34 percent would like to see a color screen. No big surprise, and the favorite feature was wireless access, named by 60 percent of the people.NPD