Wallace Leaves Wenner; S&S Moves Bulger to Head New Distribution Client Group Bob Wallace has resigned as head of the Wenner Books line to “pursue other opportunities.” A spokesman says the imprint “is alive and well with a full catalogue for 2006,” though Lloyd Grove cites a Wenner Media “insider” as indicating that “Wallace’s departure probably signals the inevitable demise of the book-publishing division.” Simon & Schuster has created a new distribution client unit to be run by Joe Bulger, who takes the position of vp, client management and business development, reporting to svp of supply chain operations Joe D’Onofrio. […]

On Bertelsmann: More French Stores, and the Unsung Division Bertelsmann will buy France’s Alsatia Group bookstore chain, with 22 stores and sales of $74 million last year. Earlier this year, the company bought independent French chain Privat. In a separate piece, Business Week points out that Bertelsmann’s Arvato division (which current CEO Gunther Thielen used to run) is the company’s second-leading unit in sales and profits. What started as a printing division has grown into a services-based growth engine. One analyst notes, “It’s basically handling customer resource management for big companies, and it’s an enormous contributor to the Bertelsmann group.” […]

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Deal News Among the dozens of new ones: The story of the biggest Amerian marijuana bust to Putnam; THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB, also to Putnam in a significant deal; a Shakespearean treasure hunt for Dutton; a very good deal at Minotaur for Marcus Sakey’s debut crime novel; Mike Tidwell’s warning that all coastal towns face Katrina-like scenarios, to the Free Press; and of course plenty more. New deals page Deal Reports Just e-mail to deals@PublishersMarketplace.com if you aren’t using the online form linked below. Report a deal using the online form Fair Enough So I’ve been gently teased by […]

AAP Sues Google A year ago Google’s founders came to Frankfurt to unveil the publisher-focused Google Print program and now the AAP has marked the anniversary by filing suit against the separate Google Print for Libraries initiative. Following the lead of the Authors Guild, the publishers’ suit — filed on behalf of McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, Penguin USA, Simon & Schuster and Wiley — “seeks a declaration by the court that Google commits infringement when it scans entire books covered by copyright and a court order preventing it from doing so without permission of the copyright owner.” AAP is “funding and […]

LaFarge Moves to New Role at Bloomsbury, and More Personnel News Leading a batch of personnel news is the announcement that Annik LaFarge will move to Bloomsbury to become publishing director, starting November 14. She has been an editor at Crown (and was previously an executive at Contentville and associate publisher at Simon & Schuster and Villard). Bloomsbury says LaFarge will serve “as liaison between editorial and marketing/publicity, coordinating pre-publication plans, seeing books through publication and helping to maximize sales,” along with acquiring and editing four to six titles a year. Publisher Karen Rinaldi observes in a statement, “What a […]