New Head for OUP in America, Corey’s New Imprint, and Other Personnel News At Oxford University Press USA, president Laura Brown is stepping down after six years in that position. (Brown first started with Oxford in 1980, as sales promotion manager.) Oxford chief executive Henry Reece says in an announcement: “In every position that she has held at Oxford Laura has displayed great energy, enthusiasm, and vision, and has been one of the most creative publishing minds in the business. She has been a highly effective ambassador in the wider cultural world of foundations and related institutions, and has done […]

Act One: HMV Turns Down Offer HMV rejected the $1.3 billion/762 million pound takeover offer from Permira out of hand yesterday: “The Board has concluded that the proposal undervalues HMV Group. As such, HMV Group will not be entering into any discussions with Permira.” Of course this is the traditional way the dance goes. Permira’s opening bid was about five percent lower than initially rumored. (On the other hand, HMV traded on the open market for 25 percent more last fall before their bad earnings report.) Shares will fall again, having risen last month on news of the bid; investors […]

TWBG Sale: Some Nuts and Bolts Here are some of the currently-known details about what will happen when the sale of the Time Warner Book Group to Lagardere closes at the end of March. For now, new TWBG chairman and chief executive David Young will remain in his job, based in New York, and will take on the additional title of CEO Hachette Livre USA, which will be the new US holding company for the book publisher. In the UK, the recently promoted head of TWBG’s unit there Ursula Mackenzie will continue in her job, now reporting to Hachette Livre […]

BMW Test-Drives Audio Books, As Harper Pilots a Free Book on the Web BMW has recruited four authors from Random House UK, including Karin Slaughter, James Flint and Simon Kernick, to write 45 minute audio books featuring their cars. The audio files are available for free from BMWAudioBooks.com, starting this week with Don Winslow’s The Beautiful Ride. Separately, Bruce Judson’s 2004 book GO IT ALONE! The Secret to Building a Successful Business of Your Own, can now be read in its entirety from his web site for free. Each page carries a vertical strip of text ads served by either […]

Amazon Media Tops $1 Billion for Quarter Amazon unleashed their quarterly blizzard of multiple ways of measuring earnings, as sales rose 17 percent to $2.98 billion for their fourth quarter. (Full-year sales hit $8.49 billion, up 23 percent.) Media sales — the category in which books are hidden — hit $1 billion in North America for the first time this quarter, reaching $3.046 billion for the year. International media sales aren’t far behind, registering $968 million for the quarter, and $2.885 billion for the year. Which means that Amazon’s $5.93 billion in media sales overall puts it significantly ahead of […]

Personnel News Longtime PGW executive Karen Cross, who most recently was evp of marketing there, is joining competitor Ingram Publisher Services, as vp of publisher relations. Remaining in the San Francisco area, Cross "will be responsible for the implementation of the next phase of the development" of Ingram’s distribution unit. Ingram senior vp Phil Ollila says in the announcement, "Eighteen publishers have joined us as distribution clients. We have found that in order to more effectively serve our current publishers and provide a platform for further growth, we needed to bring onboard an experienced distribution and marketing executive such as […]