The Booker Prize longlist was announced yesterday. The list will be whittled to six on September 7, and the winner will be named on October 12. As helpfully sorted below, four of the titles are scheduled for US publication over the next three months, and three have no announced US publication date. In a Booker first, Damon Galgut’s novel does not have a US print release date yet, but is available now from Amazon Kindle. Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in AmericaAndrea Levy, The Long SongDavid Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet Lisa Moore, February Christos Tsiolkas, The […]
International News
Penguin Sales Up 9 Percent As Profit More than Doubles
Sales at Penguin for the first half of the year rose 9 percent, at 493 million pounds–as did sales across Pearson–and operating profit at the book publisher more than doubled, at 44 pounds (up from 21 million pounds a year ago). The company says the increase in margins is “the result of a strategy of targeted and sustained investment in publishing, digital change and reorganization.” They go on to cite “a series of organizational changes made in 2009 at Penguin UK and Dorling Kindersley to strengthen publishing, accelerate the transition to digital, reduce costs and shift design and production to […]
People
Cengage Learning is restructuring to consolidate its business units into “one streamlined operating group” and two key executives are leaving as a result. They are bringing together their academic and professional group, the Gale library/reference division, and their international operations and say the transition “is expected to be completed in September.” President of Gale Patrick Sommers will retire at the end of July, and president of academic and professional group Ron Mobed will leave the company. A new executive committee includes ceo Ron Dunn; Adrian Butler, Executive Vice President, Human Resources; Ken Carson, General Counsel; Dean Durbin, Chief Financial Officer; […]
More On Penguin Canada
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 […]
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 […]