Smithsonian’s New Program “A Major Expansion” As expected, the Smithsonian Institution and HarperCollins did announce their co-publishing agreement yesterday. The unexpected part is the agreement launches a much more ambitious and trade-focused publishing program under the Smithsonian’s banner, or what Smithsonian Business Ventures ceo Gary Beer calls “a major expansion of our content and brand in the marketplace.” The new line aims to issue a whopping 100 Smithsonian-branded titles a year, drawing on the collections, resources, and relationships of the Institution. Collins president Joe Tessitore notes, “We’re working with the curators of every museum in the Smithsonian.” In contrast to […]

The Disney Show The lid is off of DISNEYWARS. I know you’ll find this hard to believe, but it turns out that Disney executives were competitive and petty, Michael Eisner has never really respected Robert Iger, and he didn’t even think Lost was a good TV show: ‘Lost’ is terrible,” he says. “The pilot was two hours; it was broken into two one-hour episodes. Then the show goes off a cliff. There’s no more plane crash! Who cares about these people on a desert island?” A news story in the NYT says, “Much of the information in DisneyWar is not […]

Penguin UK Mess Claims Unexpected Victim Penguin UK chief executive Anthony Forbes Watson told his staff this morning that he is resigning. Overall Penguin Group chairman and CEO John Makinson attributed the departure to “differences on the way forward for the Penguin and DK businesses.” Apparently Makinson has some extra time on his hands and will thus fill the role that Forbes Watson held for eight years himself. PN reports he said, “I will be back in touch in a few days with more detail on how I plan to run Penguin in the UK and DK.” Makinson also said […]

Moved Up Jose Canseco’s JUICED will now be published a week earlier, on February 14, and his 60 Minutes segment will air this Sunday. James Stewart’s DISNEYWARS has also been moved up, by two weeks, to February 22. Amusingly, Variety’s Peter Bart writes that “everyone I ran into last week claimed to be reading it and had an opinion about its impact on the future of Disney.” Borders Buys Are Driven By the Stats Variety looks at how BN and Borders “have so completely remapped the sensory experience of shopping that it’s easy to forget what book-buying used to be […]

Eisner Denies He Called His Execs “Monkeys” The LA Times has another take on James Stewart’s forthcoming DISNEYWARS. Citing a draft copy of the manuscript that they have obtained, the Times’ coverage focuses on the portrait painted of Robert Iger: “One of an embattled and sometimes insecure man who hungers for respect and recognition, especially from his boss, Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner.” By their account, Disney’s review of the manuscript has led to “battling behind the scenes with the author and his publisher” over passages the company finds “slanted or erroneous.” The paper says, “Some of those […]

McEvoy Buys Packager The McEvoy Group, which owns Chronicle Books and is run by Chronicle chairman and CEO Nion McEvoy, has purchased Seattle-based book producer becker&mayer!. Founders Jim Becker and Andy Mayer will continue to run the 42-person (and growing) Seattle-based company, and Becker says it will be “business as usual” in their primary businesses of creating and producing books for a variety of publishers and retailers. Broadly speaking becker&mayer! and Chronicle will operate on an “arm’s length relationship,” Becker says, with no consolidation and no special offerings of packaged books to Chronicle. Chronicle will take over sales and distribution […]