A week after the MIT Press named Ellen Faran to succeed Frank Urbanowski as director of the press, Yale University Press chose John Donatich to replace the retiring John Ryden as press director. Donatich was one of the first employees of the Perseus Books Group and most recently served as v-p and publisher of Basic Books. Perseus immediately named Liz Maguire publishing director of Basic Books, Basic Civitas and Counterpoint. She had been v-p, associate publisher and editorial director of Basic Books and Basic Civitas.
Donatich will join Yale January 13 and will report to university president Richard C. Levin. Donatich said his goal at Yale will be "to align the press with the direction the university is going." He said this means buying authors and books that could sell in the trade without sacrificing academic standards. "We want to create a real home for scholars," he said, a goal that could result, he said, in spending more money than the typical UP advance.
Maguire joined Perseus a little more than two years ago and has led the editorial team and supervised Basic's editorial, prepress production and design departments as well as helping to expand the Civitas line. In her new role, the Basic and Counterpoint editorial staff will report to her, as will the marketing and publicity departments, which are headed by John Hughes, director of marketing and associate publisher of Counterpoint. Before joining Perseus, Maguire had been editorial director at the Free Press.
The press will reportedly bring in another acquiring editor in the near future, though it is unlikely to hire anyone to replace Maguire.
