Abrams has hired Mary McAveney as president and CEO, taking over on November 28 as the company’s first-ever female chief executive. Currently chief revenue officer and chief marketing officer at Open Road, McAveney first worked for Abrams in 1992 on the marketing and sales team, and has held positions at Simon & Schuster, Zondervan, and HarperCollins. She succeeds Michael Jacobs, who will step down after running the company for 19 years. Jacobs will take the role of executive chair of the board at Abrams and will remain on the board of Abrams & Chronicle Books in the UK. He will […]
Personnel
PRH Acquires Remaining Stake in PRH Grupo Editorial Portugal
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial announced Friday it has agreed to purchase the remaining minority stake of 15.6% of PRH Grupo Editorial Portugal from Manuel de Freitas and his family. De Freitas had retained that share when selling the 20|20 Editora group to PRH in 2021. With that transaction, de Freitas leaves the company, where he served as general director. Editorial continues to be run by Clara Capitão, with Pedro Veiga Ferreira, as director of financial, logistics and systems director, both reporting to Patxi Beascoa.
Callisto Slashes Workforce Again, Continues With Modest Crew
Three months after Callisto Media laid off 35 percent of its staff, the company instituted another deep round of cuts Monday—this time approximately 200 positions, or around 70 percent of its workforce—in all departments. An estimated 60 employees remain in the book-making departments (editorial, marketing, design, etc.). Access to internal systems, other than email, was reportedly turned off this weekend for the employees who would be laid off, and their emails were turned off at 5 PM Eastern on Monday. A press release issued Tuesday says that Callisto “today announced that it will immediately restructure its operations to focus on […]
HarperCollins Institutes Layoffs, Hiring Freeze due to “Cost Pressures”
HarperCollins has eliminated positions and paused hiring due to financial pressures, the company confirmed to PL on Thursday. They shared the following statement: “The business is facing continued cost pressures, including price increases related to printing, production, freight and distribution, and we are taking decisive steps to operate as efficiently as possible. As part of this process, we have made some difficult decisions and a small number of positions have been eliminated as teams restructure.” In a memo to staff, ceo Brian Murray wrote, “For the past several years we have been operating in a state of constant change–shifting resources […]
Yaged Begins Running Macmillan
President of Macmillan Publishers US Jon Yaged has taken over the day-to-day duties of running the company, ceo Don Weisberg told employees today. In May, Weisberg announced that he would step aside as ceo and Yaged would assume the title at the end of the year. Today’s announcement is part of “continuing the CEO transition.” Weisberg indicates he “will continue to be available to everyone for advice or guidance through the end of the year when Jon takes on the CEO title.” In a memo to staff, Yaged detailed a number of personnel changes. Clare O’Rourke is promoted to cfo, […]
Metropolitan Books to be Disbanded
Co-founder of Metropolitan Books and current svp, publisher Sara Bershtel and “other staff” at Metropolitan “will be leaving” on October 14, Macmillan confirmed to Publishers Lunch after we learned that the respected imprint would be closed and inquired for details. Longtime Metropolitan editor and associate publisher Riva Hocherman will remain and work for Holt, we were told separately, though she was not mentioned in the brief statement. Holt president and publisher Amy Einhorn “also announced that more information about Metropolitan’s future would be shared soon.” Staff indicated to PL that there has been no news internally yet about reassignment of […]