Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing president Jonathan Karp announced Monday that Touchstone will be eliminated at the end of the year, with its titles for 2019 and beyond reassigned to the Atria and Gallery lists. That decision was made in the wake of Susan Moldow’s forthcoming retirement. “Touchstone’s front list frequently overlaps with our other adult publishers, particularly Atria and Gallery Books,” Karp writes, “and I believe that going forward we will be best served by integrating Touchstone’s talented staff within these imprints.” Starting in January, executive editor Matthew Benjamin, associate editor Kaitlin Olson, executive editor Trish Todd will move to […]
Personnel
People, Etc.
Erwin Koning will join HarperCollins Holland as publisher/editorial manager on December 1, responsible for the overall trade publishing program for HarperCollins Holland. He previously held positions as editor, commissioning editor, and publisher, at Meulenhoff Boekerij and Bruna. Koning succeeds Martine Koelemeijer, who served as interim publisher/editorial manager since May 2018. Miranda Martin joined the Columbia University Press as editor for life and physical sciences at the beginning of October, taking over from Patrick Fitzgerald, who retired in June. She was assistant editor for the linguistics list and assisted on the life sciences list at the University of Chicago Press. In […]
Crown Is Merged with Random House In New Division Under Centrello; Mavjee to Leave
In her first major move since taking over as ceo of Penguin Random House US in April, Madeline McIntosh announced “significant news” to staff on Thursday: The Crown Publishing Group is being put together with Random House in a “newly-combined division” under the direction of president and publisher Gina Centrello. For now the new division will simply be called Random House, but a company spokesperson notes “this is an exploratory time with open dialogue among all appropriate parties, and the group name might be among the topics under review.” Regardless, McIntosh writes that “Random House and Crown will retain their distinct editorial […]
People, Etc.
Tara Parsons will join the Harper One Group on October 29 in the new role of associate publisher for Amistad, Harper Español, and the international fiction program, for which she will also acquire, reporting to Judith Curr. She has been editor-in-chief at Touchstone (where she reported to the soon-retiring Susan Moldow). M’Bilia Meekers joins the University of Washington Press team as publicity manager on Monday. She was publicist and copywriter at LSU Press. Also starting next week is Julie Fergus, exhibits and direct marketing manager. She was most recently associate marketing manager at Routledge, managing a list of social sciences […]
Barnes & Noble Appoints a Schottenfeld-Backed Director
At the recommendation of activist shareholder Richard Schottenfeld, who controls a roughly 6.9 percent stake in the company, Barnes & Noble has added a new director to their board. They appointed Hain Celestial founder Irwin Simon as an independent board member. Simon is in the process of stepping down as ceo at Hain, after which he will serve there as non-executive chairman. BN executive chairman Len Riggio says in the announcement, “His intellect, leadership, marketing savvy and expertise will benefit Barnes & Noble greatly.”
People, Etc.: Moldow to Retire
Susan Moldow, president of Scribner Publishing Group and publisher of Touchstone, is retiring at the end of the year. She has been with Simon & Schuster since 1994, shortly after the Macmillan acquisition. CEO Carolyn Reidy notes, “Her first order of business was to rationalize and reorganize a collection of three disparate adult imprints-Charles Scribner’s Sons, Macmillan and Atheneum-and forge them together as one: Scribner, a single powerful brand that at once acknowledged and cherished the distinguished history and tradition of those diverse imprints, while also signaling a new and contemporary focus that would revitalize and move Scribner forward. And what […]