Stuart Applebaum, director of public relations first at Bantam Doubleday Dell and then at Random House after the acquisition of Random by BDD parent company Bertelsmann, has been named executive v-p, communications for Random House Inc. In the newly created position, Applebaum will continue to be responsible for Random's internal and external communications efforts and will serve as a cross-divisional adviser on a wide range of Random publishing matters.
Bertelsmann is expected to go public in the next several years and, with that as a backdrop, Random chairman Peter Olson, in announcing the appointment, noted: "As the demand for accuracy, clarity and variety of information about Random House grows larger from all quarters in the years ahead, we are quite fortunate to have Stuart as our chief communications officer." Applebaum will continue to report directly to Olson.
Also at Random, Jack St Mary, v-p, director of sales for Random House children's book group, will step down from that position August 30. A veteran of more than 25 years in the industry, St Mary has headed the children's sales group for the last three and a half years. In a memo announcing St Mary's decision—which comes five months after Chip Gibson replaced Craig Virden as president of the children's group—Random senior v-p and director of sales David Naggar observed that the success of the company's children's book program is due in no small part to St Mary's "prodigious contributions." Naggar has begun a search for St Mary's successor.
