Houghton parent company Education Media is hardly the only overindebted conglomerate with book publishing interests. This morning Spanish media group Prisa said it would sell a 25 percent stake in book publisher Grupo Santillana for approximately $362 million. The buyer is Credit Suisse-run private equity firm DLJ South American Partners. Spain’s biggest media company, Prisa carries debt of over 5 billion euros, so the sale of the Santillana stake will have little overall impact. Santillana is “one of Prisa’s most profitable units,” the WSJ notes, adding that “the fact that Prisa is selling off part of such a lucrative unit […]
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At Pocket Books, Jaime Costas has been promoted to associate editor. William Safire, the NYT’s “oracle of language,” died Sunday at 79 of pancreatic cancer.NYT
Steve Rubin Leaves Random House
Conspicuously absent–and oddly unthanked and unmentioned–at last week’s Knopf Doubleday party for Dan Brown, Random House evp and publisher-at-large Steve Rubin is leaving the company. He said in a brief announcement: “I leave Random House after 25 years with a great sense of accomplishment and pride, as well as a bit of sadness. It has been a tremendous ride. I have had the privilege of publishing and working closely with some of the greatest authors in the world. There are too many to name, but I must mention John Grisham, Dan Brown, Pat Conroy, Bill Moyers, Bill O’Reilly and Tina […]
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John Wicker has decided to leave his position as evp of Klopotek North America and restart his consulting business, and he will continue to consult for Klopotek. Over the past four years, Klopotek’s revenue in this region grew tenfold. Karen Tiesling will take over Wicker’s responsibilities as evp sales of Klopotek North America (where she is also evp of product development). She joined the company when Klopotek acquired Global Turnkey Systems in 2006. Amy King will join Rodale Books as executive director, art & design on October 5, reporting to Karen Rinaldi. She has been creative director for Bloomsbury USA. […]
Judge Chin Orders Google Case Parties to Oct. 7 Status Conference
The judge has agreed to the request to not hold a full hearing on the proposed settlement on October 7 “as it does not appear that the current settlement will be the operative one.” But he doesn’t want to wait another month to learn the status of negotiations, as the Authors Guild and AAP had asked. At the October conference he wants “to determine how to proceed with the case as expeditiously as possible, as this case has now been pending for over four years.” While Chin will not hear from any other petitioners at the hearing, “they are free […]
Trade and Education Sales Have Big Gains for Scholastic
Scholastic reported a 14 percent increase in sales from continuing operations for their fiscal first quarter, at $315.6 million, with an improved net loss of $23 million (compared to a loss of $49.1 million a year ago.) The company says revenues were boosted by “higher sales of educational technology to schools and of children’s books in retail channels during the quarter.” CEO Dick Robinson cites “the arrival of Federal stimulus funds in local districts” as one factor in boosting education sales. In their children’s book publishing and distribution division, sales rose almost $15 million, to $76.2 million, though they had […]