Penguin Group ceo John Makinson and Penguin USA ceo David Shanks further addressed some of the company’s recent changes in Canada in a phone interview yesterday (as well as in interviews with Canadian media, excerpted below). Makinson underscored that the board-in-formation for Penguin Canada “is not going to run anything” and the job of the new board chairman, who has been identified but is still resolving other commitments, “will not be an executive function.” While the new post “will be a part-time role,” Makinson sees the board as a providing “a really useful way of thinking” about strategic issues and […]
International News
People and More: Schnittman to New Bloomsbury Post, Harper Uses NetGalley; and Much More
Oxford University Press vp of corporate and business development (and thus digital dealmaker) Evan Schnittman is joining Bloomsbury in newly-created position of managing director, group sales and marketing, print and digital, starting August 2. He will lead Bloomsbury’s sales and marketing in the UK, US, and Germany across all divisions of the group, and will take a lead role in Bloomsbury’s digital efforts. Chief executive Nigel Newton, to whom Schnittman reports, underscores in the announcement, “The creation of the role of a worldwide head of sales and marketing and the appointment of a highly experienced American with considerable digital experience […]
Penguin Canada Gets A New Local, Non-Canadian Boss, As Rundle’s Lawsuit Is Settled–And She’ll Return to Work
Penguin has appointed president of Penguin India Mike Bryan as the new president of Penguin Canada, starting in August. A thirty-year veteran of the company, Bryan was Penguin’s international sales and marketing director before taking over the Indian unit in 2007, started Penguin Singapore and Malaysia, and “was fundamental to the development of Penguin’s international operations, setting up companies in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.” As previously announced, he will report to Penguin USA ceo David Shanks. To appease local concerns over any diminishment of Penguin Canada’s role, the company is forming a Penguin Canada Board “which will […]
International: Approval for Bertelsmann’s Spanish Book Club Deal; Scholastic’s Arabic Exports; Faber Academy Spreads
The European Commission has approved a deal under which Bertelsmann’s Circulo de Lectores book club in Spain will now be controlled jointly by the German media group and Spain’s Planeta.Dow Jones The LAT had an interesting feature on Scholastic‘s efforts to translate select books from their list into Arabic. “Over the last three years, almost 17 million copies have been shipped from a plant in Missouri to elementary schools across the Middle East and North Africa. The State Department “paid for translations through a democracy-building initiative and for printing about half the books.” Scholastic vp Carol Sakoian says, “arents in […]
Numbers: Eclipse Opening, European Orphan Books
The Wednesday opening of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse took in $68.5 million at the box office–a record for a Wednesday debut, though slightly shy of New Moon’s opening of $72.7, though that come on a Friday.HR A report from the European Commission estimates that the Europe has over 3 million in-copyright orphan books, though it’s a rough calculation. “There are approximately 600,000 orphan works in the UK. Based on the same key factors extrapolated to the rest of the Member States, the number of orphan books in EU would be about 3 million.” As they note, in Europe there is […]
eNews: iBookstore for Canada, SuperKindle Flies Higher, and More
Canada’s iBookstore went live with paid books yesterday according to users (or today according to other official announcements). This morning Simon & Schuster Canada and Hachette Book Group both announced that they are among publishers now selling through the store, and Harper Canada has confirmed to us they are live in the store as well. Today Amazon announced they are taking pre-orders for a new version of the SuperKindle, shipping as of July 7. The new model is priced at $379 (compared to $479 for the original model), and is said to have “an all new, high contrast electronic ink […]