Pfeffer to S&S Kids
Rubin Pfeffer will join the Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Group September 19 as senior v-p and publisher of the trade publishing group. Pfeffer, who most recently was senior v-p and chief creative officer at Pearson Education, had previously been with Harcourt Brace Jovanovich for 26 years, including a stint as president of the trade division. At S&S, Pfeffer will report to children's division head Rick Richter.
Modest Gains At Wiley
Revenue rose 4% in the first quarter ended July 31 at John Wiley & Sons, to $236.7 million, and operating income also rose 4%, to $32.2 million. Net income, including a one-time tax benefit of $7.5 million, jumped to $27.9 million from $19.9 million.
Wiley's STM division had the largest gain in the period, with sales up 6%, to $48.7 million. Sales in the higher education division were flat, at $45.5 million. Sales in the professional/ trade increased 3%, to $78.5 million. The segment benefited from $1 million in sales from Sybex, which Wiley acquired earlier this year.
Sales Rise, Earnings Fall At Quarto
Boosted by the addition of £9.4 million from recent acquisitions, total sales at Quarto Group rose 23%, to £38.2 million ($71 million), for the first six months of 2005. Operating profit, affected primarily by good will and restructuring charges, fell to £881 million from £1.9 million. In addition to boosting sales, Quarto's acquisitions, which included Creative Publishing, pushed revenue from its own titles ahead of co-edition sales for the first time in the company's history.
Holtzbrinck Offers Podcasts
Holtzbrinck is offering free podcast downloads of audiobook content from its various book groups through a new Web site, Holtzbrinckpodcasts.com. Holtzbrinck's director of Internet marketing, Jeff Gomez, said it's a bit an experiment aimed at marketing audiobook content. Visitors to the site can get content for their iPods or just replay the audios on their computers; they can also click through and order the print book or audiobook.
Book TV Rolls Out Bus
C-SPAN2's Book TV will debut its Book TV Bus at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., later this month. The bus will feature a production studio and will be used to cover book events across the country.
Comics, Crime, Humor At 'NYT' Mag
The New York Times Magazine is adding a weekly special section called the Funny Pages, featuring comics, humor and an old-fashioned crime serial, beginning later this month. Times magazine editor Gerald Marzorati says graphic novelist Chris Ware will create a weekly comics serial; crime novelist Elmore Leonard will write a 2,500-word weekly crime serial; and a variety of authors will pen weekly humor essays. Marzorati said the new section is expected to attract younger readers. "Magazines should have a mix of stuff," he said.
Highfill to Join Morrow
David Highfill will join William Morrow September 26 as executive editor, reporting to Lisa Gallagher, senior v-p/publisher of Morrow, HarperEntertainment and Eos. Highfill had been with Putnam for 10 years, working with such authors as Patricia Cornwell, Steve Martini and John Nance.
Man Booker Nominees
The nominees for the Man Booker Prize were announced last week in London. Books on the shortlist are The Sea by John Banville (Picador in the U.K./Knopf in the U.S.); Arthur & George by Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape/Knopf); A Long, Long Way by Sebastian Barry (Faber & Faber/ Viking); Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber/ Knopf); The Accidental by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton/Pantheon); On Beauty by Zadie Smith (HH/Penguin).
Remembering Bellow
A memorial service to celebrate the life and writing of Saul Bellow will be held September 21, at 3 p.m., at the 92nd Street Y at Lexington Ave. and 92nd St., New York City. Speakers will include Martin Amis, William Kennedy and Jeffrey Eugenides.
