Random House revealed quietly in an internal personnel announcement that over the past 10 months the company has retrenched from two pieces of the Peter Olson expansionist years. In September, they discontinued their Japanese joint venture, Random House Kodansha, which began in 2003, and in February they divested their Random House Korea, which they had started as a joint venture with JoongAng and bought full control of four years ago. In both cases, the units were sold to the CEOs and executives who run the companies. Random House Kodansha ceo Yuji Takeda led the buyout of what is now called […]
People and Awards
Sarah Knight will join the Simon & Schuster adult trade imprint on May 24 as a senior editor, acquiring both fiction and nonfiction. She was most recently an editor at Shaye Areheart Books, will begin her new position on May 24th. At Tor and Forge, Justin Golenbock was promoted from Publicist to Senior Publicist. Goldberg McDuffie Communications announced the promotions of Grace McQuade to managing director; Angela Baggetta Hayes to director of GMC Digital; Megan Underwood Beatie to deputy director of GMC Digital; Kathleen Carter to publicity manager; and Liza Lucas to Senior Publicist. Dennis Hayes joined National Book Network […]
Education Gains Slightly at McGraw-Hill; United Media Licensing Sold
Reporting results for their fiscal first quarter, McGraw-Hill’s education division rose 1.5 percent to $317 million, with a reduced operating loss of $61.8 million. Higher ed, professional and international sales rose over 8 percent to $206 million due to “surging sales of digital products,” but school education sales fell 9 percent to $112 million. Those digital gains included “double-digit revenue increases” from “e-books, online courses and online homework management assessment products for students.”Release Brand management group Iconix has bought United Media Licensings from the E.W. Scripps Company for $175 million. As part of the deal, Iconiz has created a partnership […]
eNews: Bookmasters Launches Conversion and Distribution; Goldberg McDuffie Starts Digitally-Focused Consulting Group
The BookMasters Group is starting CONVERSO, designed “to make the digital production and distribution process simple and more accessible for small and mid-sized publishers.” They say they will provide digital distribution to “more than 40 digital outlets” and promise “a better deal on revenue-sharing and conversion than competing offerings.”ReleaseList of distribution partners Goldberg McDuffie Communications is launching a new division, GMC Consulting, designed to “help authors, agents and publishers develop creative strategies to meet the challenges of the digital era.” Led by the agency principals Camille McDuffie and Lynn Goldberg, they aim to “help build platforms for authors, developing marketing […]
Lunch Weekly for Monday, April 26
Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form The Key As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together. “nice deal” $1 – $49,000 “very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000 “good deal” $100,000 – $250,000 “significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000 “major deal” $500,000 and up FICTION Debut Longtime CNN anchor Kitty Pilgrim’s SINCLAIR, tracking abrilliant archaeologist and a […]
Open Road to Release Styron eBooks, But Random House Not Ready to Release Other Authors
Open Road will go ahead with their planned republication of backlist works by William Styron in ebook form starting May 4. Initially the ebooks will only be available on Kindle, the NYT reports, though the company intends to have distribution through other online retailers as well. (The company declined to indicate for now whether they are selling on an agency or wholesale basis.) While Random House is not contesting this agreement, spokesman Stuart Applebaum says the house’s position on electronic rights to older works remains as stated by ceo Markus Dohle last year (“Random House considers contracts that grant the […]