Gordon Macomber has been named president of the Thomson Gale Publishing Group. Macomber, who starts April 5, succeeds Allen Paschal, who resigned from the company earlier this year.

Macomber's move to Gale reunites him with a number of companies that he oversaw when he was head of Macmillan Reference USA, including Macmillan Reference and Thorndike Press. Gale's parent company, Thomson Learning, acquired Macmillan Library Reference in 1999. Prior to joining Gale, Macomber was CEO of Merriam-Webster and had served as president of NYUonline, New York University's for-profit electronic learning unit, which folded in December 2001.

Macomber will report to Ron Dunn, CEO of Thomson Learning's academic and international group. Gale has been hit hard by the soft library market, and Macomber's background is expected to help Gale speed its efforts to move more of its print products into electronic formats.