Steroid-Book Serial Targets Bonds The forthcoming book GAME OF SHADOWS from San Francisco Chroncile reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams is serialized in a Sports Illustrated cover story and delivers a thorough account of Barry Bonds’ alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs over a number of years, providing “sometimes day-to-day, drug-by-drug detail how often and how deeply Bonds engaged in the persistent doping.” The book will be published on March 27. SI.com VNU Buyout Terms Announced, Though Shareholders May Resist VNU has agreed to a buyout worth 8.6 billion euros from a consortium of private equity groups. For now the new […]

Fehr to Leave in Smithsonian Reorganization In a reorganization of the joint publishing program between the Smithsonian Institution and HarperCollins, the role of Smithsonian Books publisher has been eliminated and Don Fehr will be departing. Elizabeth Dyssegaard will run the Smithsonian Books editorial office in New York, and Smithsonian Business Ventures has named Carolyn Gleason to the Washington, DC-based post of director of Smithsonian Books. SBV head Gary Beer says in a statement: “Don Fehr played an important role in the transition from Smithsonian Press to our joint publishing program with HarperCollins, and we are grateful for his contribution. The […]

The Beginning of the London Book Fair Neither heat (of the hall), nor rain of protests (from anti-Reed agitators) nor dimness of wireless Internet access (which barely worked, or didn’t work at all) could delay the London Book Fair from making its move to new quarters and once again welcoming publishers from the around the world to trade rights and more. Around the world is still the operative phrase for Sunday, where one longstanding tradition — in which many of London’s most prominent editors and executive elect not to attend — appears to be as vibrant as ever. The aisles […]

Schedules and Such Weather permitting, Lunch heads to London tonight, and will not be published tomorrow. We will post regularly from the Fair, both at PublishersMarketplace.com and via e-mail, though the exact schedule always comes together on the fly. We’ll have a big deal round-up ready on Sunday night as usual, and constant deal reports as news comes in. (As noted earlier, there should be market-priced wireless Internet access at Excel, so feel free to post deal bulletins while you’re at the show.) I’ve received about a dozen e-mails with different versions of schedules of LBF seminars and events and […]

Baron Adds a Second Job; Borders UK Gets a New Chief In addition to her current role as publishing director at Bookspan, Carole Baron will now acquire and edit books for Knopf, too. Prior to joining Bookspan last year, Baron had been president at Putnam and Dutton. In the topsy-turvy world of British chain bookselling, Borders UK has appointed David Roche as CEO of the unit. Roche had been product director at competitor Waterstone’s until last year. (He left, ostensibly in order to become ceo of Ottakar’s, which never happened after the proposed management buyout failed.) The company’s previous top […]

Personnel News and Announcements Jason Pinter is moving from Warner after two and a half years there, to become an editor at Three Rivers Press, starting next week. Terra Chalberg is moving to Simon Spotlight Entertainment, where she will be an associate editor. She started at Scribner in 2002 and then worked at Simon & Schuster. Michele Matrisciani will join HCI as editorial director in early March. She has specialized in self-help, psychology, health, women’s issues and diet and fitness books at McGraw-Hill. On the corporate side, MacAdam/Cage has announced a “strategic relationship” with Random House Canada, under which they […]