Friday was the last day for Rich Freese as president of National Book Network. “It’s an amicable parting,” said Jed Lyons, CEO of NBN and president and CEO of its sister company, the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. Lyons has no plans to replace Freese. John Groton will continue to handles sales; Jeanne Kramer will run client management.
“We’re taking a different direction than when Rich joined us almost two years ago,” said Lyons, referring to NBN’s January announcement that it would cut seven sales and marketing positions and downsize its client base. “As president, Rich was spending his time chasing new clients. We’re trying to focus on clients in categories that are a good fit for us, have expertise in their categories, and have been clients for many years. It’s very difficult to be effective for hundreds of clients."
Looking back over the 25-year history of NBN, Lyons says that the Lanham, Md.-based distributor was most effective in the 1990s when it had 75 clients. “For a while NBN was wagging the publishing company. We’re going back to the model where the publisher is the driver. NBN just got too big,” he said. NBN has already begun the downsizing process. As contracts reach the end of their term, it is not renewing those outside the company’s new parameters.
Freese's departure ends his second stint with NBN. He returned to the distributor in July 2009 after spending nine years at NBN as senior v-p of sales until 2001. when he left to become president of MotorBooks International. After leaving MBI, Freese was president of Publishers Group West and served as president of BookMasters Distribution Services.
