Following the broad merging of Ingram’s units into a single integrated Content Group, ceo David “Skip” Prichard has named Ingram executive Phil Ollila as chief content officer. He will oversee publisher services, comprising Lightning Source, CoreSource, the marketing group, and their distribution operation, Ingram Publisher Services. Lightning Source president David Taylor will be responsible for all publisher content acquisition activities, and Mark Ouimet becomes general manager of Ingram Publisher Services. Shawn Everson will serve as chief commercial officer, leading their businesses focused on library and retail channels. Rich Rosy will take over the library businesses, including Ingram Library Services, MyiLibrary, […]
Personnel
People and Announcements
Borders continues the tradition of bolstering their executive team with people from outside of publishing. They have hired Arthur Keeney as svp of marketing, starting at the end of June, reporting to Anne Kubek. He was general manager for eight years at Harold Friedman, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based grocery store chain, and previously worked with Borders ceo Ron Marshall at grocer Nash Finch. Among the areas he will oversee is Borders.com, where he will run a search “for a new leader at the vice president level.” Rich Fahle is moving from that role to the new position of vp creative, outreach […]
Freese to Take Over At NBN; Tamblyn Leaves BookNet for Shortcovers
Rich Freese will take over from Jed Lyons as president of NBN as of July 6, working out of Oakland, CA. Lyons will “focus on the book publishing activities of NBN’s parent company, The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.” (The release says NBN had sales of $100 million, and R&L had sales of $60 million.) Most recently Freese had launched a new distribution enterprise for BookMasters, though he worked at NBN in the late 90s and through 2002. Lyons says in the announcement “Rich Freese is the most knowledgeable, thoughtful, and creative person I know in the book distribution business.” […]
People
Random House UK ceo Gail Rebuck was made a Dame on the Queen’s Birthday Honors List (her husband is already a Lord). In annual income disclosures, Senator Ted Kennedy reported that he was paid $2 million as an advance (presumably only the first part) for his memoir in 2008. (The full price was reportedly about $8 million.) This week’s New Yorker profiles Nora Roberts, “America’s most popular novelist”–whom the magazine explains to its readers is like “the Raymond Carver of romance,” at least in her “choice of milieu.” (They note that the Times Book Review has reviewed just one of […]
People, Awards, Announcements
Michael Thomas was the surprise winner of the IMPAC Prize for his debut novel MAN GONE DOWN, published by Grove/Atlantic. The judges said: “We never know his name. But the African-American protagonist of Michael Thomas’s masterful debut, Man Gone Down, will stay with readers for a long time. Tuned urgently to the way we live now, [Man Gone Down] is a novel brilliant in its scope and energy, and deeply moving in its human warmth.” Len Vlahos has been promoted to chief operating officer at the American Booksellers Association, filling the position held by Oren Teicher before he advanced to […]
People and More
Publisher of Sweden’s Nicotext Fredrik Colting has now admitted that he wrote 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye and invented the pseudonym JD California. (A photo that ran in the Telegraph depicted a friend of Colting’s who is an actor.) Colting claims not to have understood he was echoing Salinger’s name with his pseudonym: “Somehow, John David California sounded like JD. I didn’t think about that actually. I just thought it sounded cool. Of course afterwards, I see the resemblance.” He has also backed off of his fiery language about the suit and now claims, “I’ve never said this […]