Lia Ronnen has been promoted to publisher at Artisan, effective September 2. She succeeds Ann Bramson, who will now acquire books across Workman’s imprints with the new title of executive director, special projects at Workman. Of Ronnen’s appointment, Bramson said in the announcement: “Lia is an amalgam of everything one could want in a publisher: editorial vision, graphic sensibility, and sales and marketing savvy. I have an extraordinary successor in place and can now explore some unorthodox concepts and formats that I have been eager to develop for a long time.” Tricia Boczkowski has been named vp, editorial director of […]
International News
Book Sales in Indigo Q1 Grew For First Time in Almost Five Years
Canada’s dominant bookseller Indigo reported fiscal first quarter (for the period ending June 28). Sales increased 5.4 percent, to $180.8 million CA, and the net loss of $14.0 million was an improvement upon the $20.9 million lost at the same time a year ago. Indigo largely attributed the quarter’s revenue growth to the launch of American Girl specialty boutiques (with “outstanding” customer response to the first two boutique stores) and the early timing of Easter, the company also noted that book sales grew “for the first time since fiscal 2010.” Same-store sales for the quarter were up 8.3 percent at […]
People, Etc.
Jason Weidemann has been promoted to editorial director of University of Minnesota Press. He succeeds Richard Morrison, who left after fifteen years at UMP to become editorial director at Fordham University Press last month. At Macmillan, Krista Loercher has been promoted to director, Amazon sales. Sam Caggiula has joined Skyhorse as senior publicity manager. Previously he was a publicist at Rowman & Littlefield. Former Bertelsmann executive Richard Sarnoff has been named head of KKR & Co.’s Americas media and telecoms team, as well as a managing director of KKR. Sarnoff, a former co-chairman of Bertelsmann’s U.S. division, has been a […]
Corporate: Perseus Sale Postponed; Mondadori Merges Children’s Imprints
The closing of the sale of the Perseus Books Group to Hachette — with the distribution businesses to be sold in turn to Ingram Content Group — has been postponed past the intended July 31 date. That closing date always seemed ambitious, since the complicated three-way agreement was not executed until June 24, though up until a few days ago the parties were proceeding on track with that closing date. Indeed, HBG indicated to us in a brief statement, “This transaction is more complex because there are three parties involved and so more time is needed.” Perseus employees were told by email […]
People, Etc.
Ten Speed Press announced a number of promotions and new hires. In the publicity and marketing departments, Lorraine Woodcheke has been named marketing & publicity manager, cookbooks, while Natalie Mulford moves up to marketing and publicity manager, Watson-Guptill and Amphoto Books. In the design department, Betsy Stromberg has been promoted to senior art director while Chloe Rawlins moves up to senior design manager. Kara Plikaitis has been named senior art director and Ashley Lima joins as art director. Finally, Tatiana Pavola has been named junior designer, while Anitra Alcantara joins as production designer. At Potter Style, Jay Sacher has been […]
Agreements: Curtis Brown UK Unit Pairs with BBC, and More
Cuba Pictures, the film and tv development arm of Curtis Brown UK, has a first-look deal with BBC Worldwide, which will “provide investment, co-production expertise, access to their market research and development initiatives in addition to their global marketing reach.” Cuba Pictures ceo Nick Marston says, “Our aim is to bring together writers, directors and literary material in unique collaborations to create some first-class television. This partnership with BBC Worldwide will hopefully ensure that our work will get the best global support and we look forward to working together on future upcoming projects.” The two have already been working together on a […]