Laurie Brown, most recently with Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and Lori Benton, currently associate publisher, director of marketing at Henry Holt, will join Harcourt Trade in July as part of a new executive team that will "take us to the next level," according to Harcourt Trade president and CEO Dan Farley. Brown has been appointed to the newly created position of senior v-p, director of sales and marketing, while Benton has been named to succeed the retired Louise Pelan as v-p and publisher of the children's book division. Both women will report to Farley.
Brown's appointment is part of a restructuring designed to unify Harcourt's marketing programs and to create "a more formal coordination" between the selling and marketing functions, Farley said. As a result of the new structure, David Nelson, head of sales, has resigned from the company. Brown will direct the trade division's sales efforts and oversee the adult marketing, children's marketing and interactive marketing promotion teams. In the past, the three marketing groups had reported to different executives. Farley said that with Brown's appointment, Harcourt is "positioned to capitalize on internal synergies, to better develop creative and market-savvy publishing campaigns and to partner productively" with booksellers, media, authors and illustrators.
With her appointment as publisher of the children's book division, Benton returns to Harcourt, where she had served as marketing director of the division for nearly two years before leaving for Holt in 2001. Farley said Benton's "history with us makes it possible for her to hit the ground running." In connection with Benton's appointment, Robin Cruise has been promoted from executive managing editor of children's books to deputy publisher and will remain in San Diego, Calif.
Benton and Brown will both be based in New York, a decision Farley said he hopes will give greater exposure to the company's titles. "We're looking to be more aggressive in getting our books before the media and booksellers," Farley told PW, adding that Harcourt Trade will remain bicoastal. "We're not moving the division to New York," he said.
