Earlier this month Harlequin reorganized its North American digital, retail, direct-to-consumer, and physical sales and marketing channels into a single division, which will be spearheaded by Craig Swinwood, named coo of the entire division. “By bringing these groups together under a single division, we wanted to strengthen the focus on the customers, enjoy the synergies of the marketing group and help build Harlequin’s brand further,” Swinwood told us Friday morning. “We’re committed to being available wherever, whenever, and however women want to shop.” As part of the reorganization, Brent Lewis, now executive vp digital and retail marketing, will oversee a […]
Personnel
Awards: Rea Award to Baxter; Carnegie Nominates Lauded Authors
The twenty-fifth Rea Award for the Short Story has gone to Charles Baxter. The prize recognizes a US or Canadian writer who has “made a significant contribution to the discipline of the short story as an art form.” Baxter’s works include six published collections of stories. The jurors wrote (in part), “Baxter’s stories have especially shown an acute feeling for the landscape of marriage, childhood, and art.” Announcement The new Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction announced the finalists for the two awards: Nonfiction Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert K. Massie The Information: […]
People: Frost, Ambrosi, Fuentes, and George
Former president and publisher of the Crown Publishing Group Jenny Frost has joined Scholastic as epublisher and svp ebook strategy. Frost has been working as a consultant for the past two years. Sterling vp marketing and publicity Leigh Ann Ambrosi will join Crown Archetype in the newly created position of vp, Brand Publishing Project Director on June 4, reporting to Tina Constable. In her position, Ambrosi will serve as project director for select publications by key health, fitness, and self-help authors within the Crown Archetype and Harmony Books imprints, and she will also serve as the primary liaison with the author […]
People: Changes at the Top for Nebraska Book, McGraw-Hill Education
Mark Oppegard, ceo of bankrupt NBC Acquisition Corp.–the owner of Nebraska Book Co.–will retire after 14 years leading the company and 42 years of service in all. He will stay on as evp “during a transition period that’s expected to last several months.” COO since 1999 Barry Major takes over as ceo. SVP at the college store division’s Neebo brand Steven Clemente moves up to coo. He joined the company in 2010. Report While McGraw-Hill is in “the final stages” of their search for a new head for their education division prior to its spinoff at the end of the […]
People: The Shack Author’s “Cross Roads” Set for November
Kimberly Snead his been hired for the new position of director, brand strategy at the Crown Publishing Group, reporting to vp, business development Ranjana Wingender. Snead was director, consumer marketing at Nickelodeon/MTV Networks. She will be “responsible for conceiving, creating, and executing brand development plans for a variety of authors” across the group. Daniel Nayeri has been named to the new position of digital editorial director at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s, overseeing the e-book publishing program for all frontlist and backlist HMH children’s books, as well as acquiring e-original content and developing multimedia projects. He was editor at HMH’s Clarion. […]
People: Gilbert Moves from Sterling Children’s to Doubleday, and More
As part of the continuing demise of Sterling, veteran children’s book editor Frances Gilbert will leave her position as vp, publisher of Sterling Children’s to join Random House Children’s Books as editorial director, Doubleday, starting June 18. Gilbert will report to vp, publishing director of the Random House/Golden Books Young Readers Group, Mallory Loehr. She will acquire and publish new books in a variety of formats and categories including board books, picture books, narrative nonfiction, novels and ebooks, and will also oversee the backlist publishing program. Gilbert has been at Sterling for 12 years. Her first list for Doubleday is planned for […]