Responding to a query brought by the Polish Constitutional Court, the European Court of Justice has ruled that member states may not apply a lower value added tax to downloadable ebooks or other publications — even though lower taxes are allowed for books and other publications that are printed (and in turn, even digital books delivered by a physical medium, such as CD-ROM). The Court found that “to accept that the Member States are able to apply a reduced rate of VAT to the supply of digital books electronically, as is permitted for the supply of such books on all physical means of […]
International News
Corporate: History Press Management Buyout, and More
In the UK, three members of management have acquired The History Press in a buyout from private equity firm Octopus Investments. Finance director Gareth Swain will take over as managing director since former MD Tim Davies did not participate in the buyout and has left the company. Laura Perehinec is now publishing director and Jamie Kinnear is local history publisher. The publisher lost £2.3 million in 2015 on sales of £4.8 million, after losing £1.6 million in 2014 on sales of £7.8 million. At the same time, in a separate transaction, The History Press sold the Pitkin Publishing imprint to Pavilion Books. Separately, investment firm […]
Hachette UK Buys Bookouture
Hachette UK has announced the acquisition of digital publisher Bookouture, founded by Oliver Rhodes in 2012. Rhodes will continue to run the unit, and will also serve in the new position of digital publisher at Hachette UK, “steering and advising” to “help increase ebook sale across the group,” and join the company’s board. He will report to David Shelley, and Little Brown UK will publish some of Bookouture’s titles in print. Rhodes says the acquisition “will help us to build on the significant momentum we already have and achieve even greater things for our authors.” The Bookseller notes that Bookouture has […]
People, Etc.
Little, Brown vp, associate publisher and executive director of publicity Nicole Dewey is leaving at the end of April, to become managing director at Shreve Williams Public Relations as of May 1. Sabrina Callahan has been promoted to executive director of publicity at Little, Brown, effective immediately. Tiffany Liao has joined Holt Children’s as editor. She was previously editor at Razorbill. In the UK, Trevor Dolby will retire from Penguin Random House UK in the fall, after transitioning to part-time work at beginning of May. Dolby joined Random House UK in 2007 to create Preface. Also in the UK, Ian Stewart has been found guilty of murdering […]
People
Kristen Nobles has joined Page Street Publishing as publisher to launch its new children’s book list. She spent the past 13 years at Candlewick and Walker Books Group, most recently as group art director. Co-publisher of Unbridled books Fred Ramey has launched Leaping Man, “a collaborative not-for-profit publishing and production company exploring the intersection of visual, narrative and performing arts.” The company will “seek out direct partnerships with visual, literary and performance artists to create work in a variety of media and platforms,” with the expectation that “each project will be coordinated with a limited print edition or other artifact,” sold through their website. Maria […]
People
Doris Janhsen has been appointed publisher and ceo of Munich-based Droemer Knaur Publishing Group, as of July 1 and will the Holtzbrinck Buchverlage board. Currently, Janhsen is publisher at Oetinger, and she was publisher for hardcover fiction at Droemer from 2004 to 2006. Janhsen will succeed Hans-Peter Übleis, who will continue to serve as publisher at large for Droemer and advisor for the Holtzbrinck group. Daniel Berkowitz joins Writers House on Monday as digital director. He was previously senior editor at Digital Book World. The executive overseeing Digital Book World Phil Sexton also left parent company FW Media last week. Sexton was a vice president and […]