Personnel

Bertelsmann DirectGroup announced yesterday that Najafi Companies has completed the closing of its acquisition of the North American book clubs and that effective immediately, the company’s new corporate name is Direct Brands, Inc. Consumer brand names such as Columbia House and BMG will remain unaffected. Oxford University Press has appointed Scott Kuem as Senior Vice President and CFO. Previously he was with the Neilsen Company. Also at OUP, Peter Berkery will be joining as Vice President and Law Publisher from Wolters Kluwer, effective August 18, and Julie Marshall has been named Retail Sales Director of the company. At Rizzoli, David […]

Laura Geringer, publisher of the eponymous Harper Children’s imprint for 17 years (and a Harper employee since 1980), “has announced her decision to leave her position” at the end of the month. Susan Katz says in her memo Geringer “looks forward to having more time to pursue her career as a writer, to devote her energies to the development of a new business with the capability of delivering story content on multiple platforms, and to channel more time into First Book.” The imprint is best known for picture books by William Joyce, and the IF YOU GIVE A … series […]

David Morton, who has run Rizzoli’s architecture program since 1987, has been promoted to the new position of associate publisher, architecture.   At St. Martin’s, Tom Stouras has been promoted and is adding supply chain management to his current responsibilities, taking the new title of vp, supply chain and sales operations. Steve Faber is being promoted to inventory director, supply chain and Debbie Derevjanik will become director of analysis and forecasting, supply chain, both reporting to Tom Stouras. Alison Indrisano has been appointed president and ceo of National Geographic School Publishing, including Hampton-Brown, which it acquired in 2006, starting in early […]

Steve Rubin and Maria Campbell threw a party last night for former HarperCollins ceo Jane Friedman on the roof Rubin’s apartment building, attended by longtime publishing colleagues and, apparently, a few publishing reporters. The guests surprised Friedman by wearing printed Jane Friedman masks. She called it her “transition party” and noted: “What I’m going to say –and this is it– is I am not done, and I am not done by a long shot.” But there’s no report on what she is transitioning to yet.Observer

Gotham Books publisher William Shinker makes his television debut tonight at 10 PM on the MTV reality show Run’s House, starring Reverend Run and his family. Shinker goes to their house to show Run and his wife Justine Simmons the jacket for their book TAKE BACK YOUR FAMILY: A Challenge to America’s Parents (released yesterday), “in a flagrant attempt to get it on the air” as he tells us. But he gets more than he bargained for, arriving as the Simmons’s children are reading excerpts from the book about themselves for the first time, “which they weren’t entirely happy with.” […]

Baker & Taylor has hired John Lindsay as vp, book merchandising, reporting to Jean Srnecz. Most recently he was vp marketing/merchandising at Levy Home Entertainment with overall responsibilities for all areas of book buying, category management, marketing, logistics and publisher relations.Release