Barry Back to Doubleday, Religion Bill Barry is returning to Doubleday — where he worked as deputy publisher in the 90s — to take the new post of publisher of Doubleday Religion, starting August 1. Michelle Rapkin, who was director of religious publishing, had asked to cut back to working part-time as an editor and then decided to leave the company completely. Unit president and publisher Steve Rubin says Barry’s “mandate is to more than double the current turnover, and to make us an even greater player in this growing marketplace.” Barry has been president of DK in the US. […]

Exodus at MacAdam/Cage; S&S Scribbles; and other Personnel News Anika Streitfeld will join Ballantine as senior editor in the beginning of August, though she will continue to work from San Francisco, primarily acquiring fiction. She has been an editor at MacAdam/Cage, where she acquired and edited Audrey Niffenegger’s THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE and fiction by Amanda Eyre Ward. MacAdam/Cage editor-in-chief Pat Walsh (whose notable books included Mark Dunn’s Ella Minnow Pea) is also leaving, after seven years at the publisher. Publisher David Poindexter comments: “On a personal level both Pat and Anika will truly be missed and we all wish […]

Viacom to Split; Simon & Schuster Goes to CBS — for Now The Viacom board announced their approval of splitting the company in two yesterday, with the “growth” assets retaining the Viacom name and the “mature” assets — including CBS, Paramount TV and King World, Infinity Broadcasting, Showtime, the outdoor advertising group and, yes, Simon & Schuster — going under the moniker of CBS Corp., run by Les Moonves. (Please note, if you rely on the NYT for your news, they get the Simon & Schuster story wrong today.) Viacom will announce more specific details over “the next several weeks.” […]

Soapbox Redux, Now with Extra Bubbles Thanks for the positive feedback to yesterday’s humble suggestion about tipping readers to editors’ lists (and yes, we did mistype “authors” where we meant “editors”). Today’s grist comes from a posting at author Neil Gaiman’s site that’s quickly being passed around the Internet. The jist (come on, how often can you get “grist” and “jist” in the same paragraph?): “Hello Neil, I’ve got more of a complaint that question. But oh well. My problem is that Harpercollins is being really stingy with the Anansi Boys proofs. I’m the manager of a small independent bookstore […]

The Jackson Race is On Unfortunately, agents are already reported to be in contact with the families of many jurors in the Michael Jackson trial, as deliberations remain underway. The Times of London reports: “One Los Angeles literary agent said the families of at least four others had been offered a combined book, audio tape and TV movie deal.” Under California law, jurors need to remain silent only 90 days after a verdict is rendered. Times Audio Rises in UK With the coming local launch of Audible.com, “the UK publishing industry is about to be hit by the same revolution […]

Executive Promotions at Rodale and Scholastic Rodale Books editor-in-chief Tami Booth Corwin is taking on the additional, newly created job of president of the unit. Reporting to Rodale CEO Steve Murphy, she has “responsibility for all of Rodale’s book activities, including how its sales, marketing and operations divisions publish each book.” At Scholastic, Ellie Berger has been promoted to svp, trade publishing, “expanding her role to include managing the division’s sales and marketing departments as well as maintaining responsibility for licensed publishing, trade operations, production, and Chicken House.” In the agency world, Anne Reid Garrett has joined the James Fitzgerald […]