Personnel News Chronicle Books has hired Bill Boedeker for the new position of children’s publishing director, following Victoria Rock’s transition to editor-at-large and founding publisher earlier this year. Boedeker was most recently vp of marketing and associate publisher at Little, Brown Children’s. Former Literary Group agent Ian Kleinert will lead a new management and production company, Objective Entertainment, formed by Mudd Jeans founder Marty Weisfeld and veteran music manager and television producer Jarred Weisfeld. Objective will have agents to represent clients in book publishing, dramatic writing, and talent, and will develop and produce properties for television and film. As of […]

Borders: It’s a Real Plan New Borders management has cast aside the cosmetic restructuring ideas that have ruled over the past few years and announced a broad strategy to remake the company. CEO George Jones notes in the announcement, “Our company’s performance has fallen short in an industry that is increasingly competitive, technology driven and price sensitive. We recognize the urgent need to go on the offensive and drive significant change.” Jones’s plan is to “invest only in transformation, not replication,” which includes numerous reversals of the company’s previous strategy. Some elements simply address the overlooked obvious: the company’s historical […]

Results Rise at Random Random House turned in a good year, with total sales rising 6.5 percent to 1.95 billion euros, up from 1.83 billion euros a year ago, “thanks to a huge number of bestsellers and several corporate acquisitions.” Operating profits, reported by the company as EBIT, hit 182 million euros, a new record. Those acquisitions — including a majority stake in BBC Books, Multnomah, Triumph, purchases in Germany and the buyout of joint venture partners in Korea — likely accounted for about 50 million euros worth of the rise, according to breakouts in the annual report. They also […]

B&T Closes AMS Purchase Baker & Taylor officially announced their acquisition of certain assets of the bankrupt AMS and will operate the business as Baker & Taylor Marketing Services. They “intend to resume full shipping operations to the warehouse clubs” as of yesterday according to the release. The final purchase price will be determined by a variety of conditional factors, though it is still estimated as approximately $76 million. The initial cash payment is just $20 million, though. An attorney for the creditors says AMS has been losing as much as $2 million a week. B&T says they will keep […]

Personnel News and Other Announcements Lisa Sharkey joins Harper today in the new position of svp/director of creative development, reporting to Michael Morrison. She will acquire “current event and personality driven books” for all general books group imprints and “will work with all publishers to position authors for maximum television exposure.” She has spent 27 years in television journalism, most recently as president of Al Roker Entertainment. Last week’s resignation of Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops chief operating officer Mary McCarthy is covered by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Company president and Schwartz’s widow Carol Grossmeyer will take over McCarthy’s responsibilities. Milwaukee J-S […]

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 Ron Leshem’s BEAUFORT, written as the diary of Erez Liberti, the head […]