In the continuing compression of trade publishing in Holland, the big Weekblad Pers Groep (WPG) announced an agreement with two main unions for a reorganization that will eliminate approximately 100 full-time jobs next year “across all publishers and headquarters,” from a total workforce of about 720 people. Discussions with individual employees are taking place now. CEO Koen Clement cited “difficult market conditions” for book publishing globally and said they are seeing “lower sales, declining print runs and shrinking advertising revenues.” He said in the press release, “We see ourselves faced with the transition from a traditional publishing company to an […]
Personnel
People, Children’s Imprints, Etc.
At Crown, Sarah Pekdemir has been named senior marketing manager, Crown Trade. At Behrman House, Dena Neusner has been promoted to executive editor. The New York Public Library will pay $2.15 million — funded in large part by a private donation — to purchase 190 boxes of Tom Wolfe‘s papers, “including drafts, outlines and research materials for his four novels and 12 other books as well as his uncollected journalism.” As previewed earlier in the week, World Book Night US has addred three YA titles to the list of books to be given away on April 22, 2014: Zora and […]
Briefs: New Divisions for Macmillan Children’s UK; Charlotte Zolotow Dies; and More
Macmillan Children’s UK announced the creation of two audience-focused publishing divisions, Macmillan Under 6s, to be overseen by publisher Stephanie Barton, and Macmillan Over 6s, led by Venetia Gosling. Both Barton and Gosling will report to Belinda Rasmussen, with Gosling also working with Pan Macmillan publisher Jeremy Trevethan on crossover projects. Each new division also announced additional promotions: At Under 6s, Suzanne Carnell becomes publishing director, Picture Books & Pre-School, and Jackie McCann moves up to editorial director, Campbell and nursery. At Over 6s, Gaby Morgan has been promoted to editorial director, adding backlist strategy to her existing remit of […]
People
Bloomberg News is cutting approximately 50 jobs from their newsroom, reportedly focused on cutbacks in their coverage of the arts, entertainment and sports. Books editor Laurie Muchnick indicated on Twitter that her job is among those that were eliminated. In addition to his Zink Inc imprint at the Random House Publishing Group, the Galvanized Books line that Random House is distributing, and his own exercise, diet and nutrition books as an author, David Zinczenko will consult with Bonnier on expanding their book lines, AdWeek reports. The magazine says he has a five-year management consulting agreement with Bonnier. CEO Dave Freygang “said the […]
Passings: Lessing, Park, Rubin and Weaver
The world of letters lost a number of prominent voices in recent days: Winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature Doris Lessing 94, died at home in London on Sunday. Her 1962 book The Golden Notebook remains her best-known work, and her editor Nicholas Pearson at Harper UK tells the NYT it was a handbook for an entire generation. The NYT adds: “The 1962 book was daring in its day for its frank exploration of the inner lives of women who, unencumbered by marriage, were free to raise children, or not, and pursue work and their sex lives as they chose.” Author of the Junie B. […]
People, Etc.
At Penguin Random House, Nihar Malaviya has been promoted to evp, deputy chief operating officer, reporting to Madeline McIntosh. He will continue with his existing duties overseeing strategic planning, analytics, and program development, while also adding direct oversight for the company’s combined corporate technology teams and for the Random House operations teams. McIntosh writes in the internal announcement : “Over the past few years, Nihar’s mandate has been to apply his uniquely powerful gifts for strategic planning to the task of expanding our competitive advantages in the evolving marketplace. The direct results of his leadership are seen in the Random […]