The company will hold an “important press conference in New York at the Morgan Library on the morning of February 9. Their last NY press event was the launch of Kindle in late 2007.AllThingsD
Harper Presents Retirement Offer
This morning HarperCollins presented to US employees internally a voluntary retirement package, available to people over age 55 who have been with the company for more than five years. The offer was made to employees at the company’s New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles offices and their Scranton warehouse. It does not extend to Zondervan or any Harper units outside of the US for now; spokesperson Erin Crum notes that “each business area has different needs and legal requirements.” Noting that they company “has never done anything like this before,” Crum would not indicate a target number of job […]
Saletan to Riverhead
Former publisher at Harcourt Houghton Mifflin Rebecca Saletan will join Riverhead in March. Saletan says, “I have long admired this publisher, and in a very challenging time in the industry I am so thrilled to be at a house that is a paragon of stability and foresight.” She will acquire “a broad range of narrative nonfiction, in such areas as science, travel, natural history, current affairs, the environment and food, as well as literary fiction,” according to the release. Publisher Geoff Kloske says “I’m very pleased to welcome an editor of Becky’s exceptional talent and breadth of experience to Riverhead’s […]
Nelson Leaves PW in RBI Layoffs; Criticas to Stop Printing
Following the suspension of efforts to sell the company last December, Reed Business Information executed layoffs throughout the US division of company yesterday said to comprise 7 percent of employees. The company also is said to have imposed a salary and hiring freeze for 2009. (A separate UK report says that 35 employees were eliminated from that part of the company.) PW’s high-profile editor-in-chief Sara Nelson was among the people laid off. Other reported layoffs at PW include longtime executive editor Daisy Maryles, bookselling editor Kevin Howell, and director of business development Rachel Dicker. From within the same publishing group, […]
Wikipedia Book Has a New Twist on Free
O’Reilly Media’s guide book Wikipedia: The Missing Manual is now available for free online as a Wikipedia entry itself–and open to editing and updating like any other posting on the online encyclopedia. Editor Peter Meyers says “the book is going to reside in the site’s Help area, naturally, since the book is all about helping people edit and navigate their way around Wikipedia…. Our hope is that the Wikipedia community will flock to the book and ‘curate’ it by adding tips, tricks, and by updating the material to reflect changes to Wikipedia since we’ve published the original edition. Down the […]
Keeping Book Soup Warm
“In the wake of owner Glenn Goldman’s death, employees and colleagues ponder the future of the independent bookstore” Book Soup, the LAT writes. The store, and other surviving indies in the LA area, report good results from last year. “According to manager Tyson Cornell, Book Soup did ‘very well’ last year. So did Los Feliz independent Skylight Books, which recently expanded from 2,000 to 3,100 square feet. This December, says manager and co-owner Kerry Slattery, Skylight’s sales were 17% higher than last year. Overall sales for the year were 7.5 % higher.” Efforts to find a new owner for Book […]