Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Executive Team in Place

With the completion of Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep’s purchase of Harcourt’s U.S. education, reference and trade operations, a new executive team has been put into place to oversee the newly named Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company’s eight operating groups. The presidents of the various units all report to Gerald Hughes, president and COO of HMH, who in turn reports to...

Amazon Upgrade Tops 100,000 Titles

Approximately 18 months after its launch, Amazon Upgrade boasts more than 100,000 titles, and the company is starting to expand the program beyond the group of professional publishers that have formed the core of its first participants. “We’d love to have more books, and we’re working with publishers to add more titles,” said Laura Porco, director of Upgrade.

Scholastic Will Exit Home Continuities; Posts Quarterly Gains

Scholastic has decided to sell its unprofitable home continuities business, though it will retain the school side of the business. Company chairman Dick Robinson made the announcement in connection with the release of second quarter results that showed a 1.5% revenue increase and a small gain in profits.

Melville House Moves to Brooklyn

Indie publishers Melville House is moving from its current headquarters in Hoboken, NJ to a new space in Brooklyn' s DUMBO neighborhood, which will house a bookstore and event space, along with the press's offices.

Scholastic Signs Riordan for Multiplatform Series

Scholastic has signed Rick Riordan, author of the bestselling Percy Jackson series, for an ambitious multiplatform middle-grade adventure series that debuts next September.

HM Completes Harcourt Buy

History Gets a New Look

Emulating the Minnesota Historical Society Press, which seven years ago implemented an ambitious new business model emphasizing personal narratives with universal themes, Kathy Borkowski, director of the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, has taken the 152-year-old press in new directions in the past three years.

HM Completes Harcourt Purchase

Houghton Mifflin has completed its $4 billion purchase of Harcourt's education, trade and reference divisions. Company executives are promising a speedy integration of the two companies.

Murphy Named Publisher of Scholastic Trade

Suzanne Murphy will become publisher of Scholastic Trade beginning January 1. Murphy, who has overseen the unit's marketing efforts, is taking over the duties of Ellie Berger who was named division president in October, replacing Lisa Holton.

Warming to Kindle

As I write this, I have been the obsessive owner of an Amazon Kindle for 36 hours. Nobody could be more surprised by that statement than I am. Because even if trying out the Kindle is part of my job—and even if I did concede just two weeks ago that e-readers may finally be getting some traction—I can’t say I was expecting to becoming a user, let alone a passionate one.

Monti Joins Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Joseph Monti has been named director of paperbacks at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Borders Names Paperchase President

Veteran retailer Dick Lynch has been named president of Paperchase U.S., the stationery arm of Borders, which the company hopes to expand in this country.

Amazon's Kindle: Very Cool, Really Easy

The Kindle has three surefire selling points—title selection, pricing and Amazon's nifty Whispernet wireless network—that give it an advantage over devices like the Sony Reader and the iLiad.

'The Future of Publishing?'

They began, like many a small press, with a single title—in this case a collection of 19 stories by a little-known American living in China, Roy Kesey. The print run was small (2,500) and the house had no distributor and did its own fulfillment. The two founders, Steve Gillis and Dan Wickett, had proudly if awkwardly named the house by combining the first initials of the five children the...

Chain Sales Rise 5.6% to $2 Billion

Total revenue from the nation's three major bookstore chains rose 5.6% in the third quarter ended October 31, reaching just under $2.1 billion. Similar to its larger competitors, Books-A-Million reported last week that gains were led by increases in sales of bestsellers. Among the titles leading sales at BAM were Alan Greenspan's Age of Turbulence, Clarence Thomas's My Grandfather's Son and the...

Ditlow to Leave Random House

Tim Ditlow, who was appointed v-p, publisher at large for the Random House Audio Group in May, is leaving the company.

Harcourt Sale to HM Riverdeep Cleared

The Justice Department has approved the sale of Harcourt's U.S. education businesses to HM Riverdeep, clearing the way for the $4 billion deal to close within a matter of weeks.

Wiley Announces New Investing Imprint

John Wiley has launched of a new imprint, Fisher Investments Press, which will drawn on the expertise of the independent money management firm Fisher Investments and its founder and CEO, Ken Fisher.

B&N, Borders Expect Green Christmas

Stronger than expected third-quarter results at the nation's two major bookstore chains led execs at those retailers to predict that their companies will be able to overcome a generally soft retail environment and post solid gains over the holiday season. Barnes & Noble said it expects comp-store sales to increase in the low single digits in the fourth quarter; Borders did not put a number ...

Balliett Makes First Buys at Hyperion

Will Balliett, who moved to Hyperion as editorial director in August from Perseus, has made his first two acquisitions for the imprint. The first is Donny Deutsch's Big Idea: 100 Ways to Make Your Entrepreneurial Dreams Come True, from the Aha! Moment to Your First Million; Wayne Kabak at William Morris sold world rights.