Beginning June 1, Regnery Publishing will bring its sales operation in-house, having been with Perseus Distribution. Moving forward, Perseus will continue to handle warehousing and all other distribuiton functions for Regnery.
Regnery president and publisher Marji Ross said the publisher had been discussing the possibility of moving sales in-house for more than a year. After Ingram’s purchase of Perseus’s distribution business, Ross said it seemed like the right time to make a move. “We thought that if we are going to go through a transition anyhow, we might as well bring sales in-house.”
The impetus driving the switch, Ross said, is the nature of Regnery’s list--relatively small, frontlist-driven, with the expectation that a number of titles will hit the bestseller lists. With many of Regnery’s books time sensitive and dependent on media coverage, Ross said she wanted a sales unit that could react quickly to events.
The in-house sales team is comprised of two newly-hired industry veterans, Marcy Goot and Julie Jayne. Goot will cover major accounts and key independent bookstores in the West, while Jayne will do the same in the East. Both will report to Mark Bloomfield, Regnery's v-p sales and marketing. The Regnery sales team is selling only to U.S. accounts. All international sales are still being handled by Perseus, which will also continue to distribute Regnery’s e-books.
Ross said she believes Regnery has enough brand recognition with vendors and book-buyers, as a publisher of conservative books, that striking out on their own won’t hurt the house's chances of getting exposure at retailers. “We already have great relationships with lots of accounts, and that make us confident we can get the attention we need,” Ross said.
