In a reorganization of its top editorial management team, Dan Menaker, senior v-p of the Random House Publishing Group, has been named to the newly created position of executive editor-in-chief, and Jonathan Karp and Nancy Miller have also been given expanded responsibilities. The changes were announced last week by RH Publishing Group president Gina Centrello.
Menaker told PW that, in his new role, "I imagine my acquisitions will diminish a little bit," a development he said had begun even before these promotions. Menaker also described his new role as a kind of "high court of last resort," in which he'll help funnel new acquisitions to the appropriate editors and also make decisions on large projects together with Karp and Miller, who now head the Random and Ballantine sides of the publishing group.
Karp has become senior v-p and editor-in-chief for the Random House, Villard, Modern Library and Random House Trade Paperbacks imprints; all of Menaker's editorial reports will now report to him. Miller, already editor-in-chief of Ballantine, adds the title of executive editor for the entire group as well as oversight responsibility of Del Rey. Del Rey editor-in-chief Betsy Mitchell, who had reported to Centrello, will now report to Miller. Miller, who had also reported to Centrello, will report to Menaker and will also do acquiring for Random imprints.
There will continue to be separate catalogues and distinct identities for the two groups of imprints, though Menaker did point out several literary authors who are published by Ballantine and a few commercial authors who are at Random House. Generally, he played down the extent of the changes: "[This] is more nearly a ratification or formalization of what's been going on." As for his own role, he said he hoped to help the division "turn outward" a little more, by organizing such things as a large-scale reading by Random House writers.
