Longtime top Bertelsmann executive Richard Sarnoff will leave his positions as co-chairman of Bertelsmann, Inc., the company’s North American division, and president of Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments at the end of January to join both Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and their affiliate Weld North as a senior advisor. (Bertelsmann is already a partner with KKR in the music-publishing joint venture BMG, and Sarnoff will join that entity’s board on KKR’s behalf.) Bertelsmann chief financial officer Thomas Rabe will take over leadership of BDMI, which has invested in companies including Trion, Mojiva, Qeep, American Reading Company, Vindicia, and RoyaltyShare. Sarnoff spent much […]
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Key Porter Confirms It Will Suspend Operations
Key Porter Books confirmed on Friday that it will suspend operations while it considers “a number of restructuring options.” In a statement publisher Jordan Fenn said that Key Porter will not publish any new books going forward, but the company “is supporting its authors through the continued marketing and sale of previously published works and distribution through H.B. Fenn and Company Ltd.” A number of options are being considered, including selling off some key titles. Key Porter had laid off editor-in-chief Linda Pruessen, its last remaining editorial staffer, on December 16. The company was also supposed to publish Mark Bourrie’s […]
Simon & Schuster’s Reidy: “The Year…Publishing Changed Irrevocably”
Carolyn Reidy tells employees in her year-end letter that they will be “surpassing our prior year by a large margin,” noting, “I am confident that this year will be remembered as the year in which publishing changed irrevocably. After a full decade of speculation concerning how or even if we could manage the transition to a digital age, this year digital publishing really took off; there is no doubt that its steep growth trajectory will continue for the foreseeable future.” But “the bricks-and-mortar bookselling environment continued to lag previous years, and this is reflected in revenues lower than we’d like.” […]
Amazon Says WikiLeaks Book Does Not Contain Cables
Shortly after yesterday’s Lunch went out, an Amazon spokesperson responded to our query about the Kindle ebook titled “WikiLeaks documents expose US foreign policy conspiracies: All cables with tags from 1- 5000.” The company says “this book contains commentary and analysis regarding recent WikiLeaks disclosures, not the original material disclosed via the WikiLeaks website.” That note was then appended to the Amazon UK listing for the book, and now Amazon has also appended to the book’s title, in all caps, [DOES NOT CONTAIN TEXT OF CABLES]. The spokesperson did not respond to our questions about why the book had been […]
Media Scrutinizes Other Amazon Offerings
The media is not ready to move on after Amazon quietly removed Phillip Greaves self-published “ebook” for pedophiles, scrutinizing the company’s catalog to find other still-active titles such as Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers. Leading the charge is plain-speaking TV anchor Anderson Cooper, who has made the etailer’s policy his latest keepinemhonest cause. An LA Times editorial looks at Amazon’s “muddy reasoning” in how they handled the removal of Greaves’ “book,” writing, “there is a world of difference between a right to speak and an obligation to publish…. Amazon made a bit of a hash of this issue, first by […]
1.5 Million Copy First Printing for Bush Memoir
Crown has set a 1.5 million-copy first printing for George W. Bush’s memoir Decision Points, due out on November 9. There will also be an enhanced e-book edition featuring video highlights of Bush’s presidency, photographs not included in the hardcover book and personal correspondence.AP