Caroline Marks, who took over as head of Bookish from Paulo Lemgruber in October 2011, has left the company. A spokesperson confirmed Marks’s departure, but said the three founding Bookish publishers--Penguin, Simon & Schuster and Hachette—will move forward. “The reasons for Bookish remainin place, and the partners are committed as ever to it,” the spokesperson said. A search has started for a new CEO with a new launch date to be determined.
While the publishers said they will press ahead with Bookish, a book recommendation site that would help consumers discover books, which would be sold directly from the site, Marks’s departure is a deep blow. Marks was Bookish’s second CEO in two years and when she took over from Lemgruber she began to completely rework the site. After a number of launch delays, both Penguin and S&S had hoped the site would be up before the end of September.
