Morgan Road Closing
Doubleday Broadway is closing Morgan Road Books, the imprint formed by Amy Hertz when she left Riverhead to join the Random House division in 2004. Hertz will be leaving the company, and two other positions are being eliminated. The imprint has published 17 titles to date, and all unpublished manuscripts will be released under the Broadway Books imprint.
Marcus Joins Kid Pub Board
Barbara Marcus, former president of Scholastic Children's Book Publishing, has joined the board of Lexington, Mass.—based B*tween Productions, publisher of the Beacon Street Girls series. Marcus will consult with the company on how to build the BSG brand.
New Line From BBC
BBC Audiobooks America will launch a retail audiobook publishing program later this month featuring two individual imprints. The BBC Audio label will publish contemporary bestsellers from the mystery, literary fiction, women's fiction, thriller and narrative nonfiction genres. And under the BBC Radio imprint, the company will release dramatized recordings originally produced for broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the U.K. Distribution will be through Perseus Distribution.
Dugan Joins B&N
Lisa Dugan, who was children's book buyer and marketing coordinator at Koen-Levy Book Wholesalers, has been named picture books and classics buyer at Barnes & Noble. Dugan also served as children's book buyer for Koen Book Distributors and helped develop the Koen Kids! brand. Pat Brigandi, who had been B&N's picture book buyer, is now director of children's product development.
AMS in Deals For PGW Units
Medwyn Hughes and Catherine Goodman, who have run PGW's U.K. operation since AMS acquired their HI Marketing company in 2002, have agreed to pay $216,325 for the U.K. distribution arm. PGW's Australian distributor, Bookwise International, as well as its Singapore unit, will be acquired by the Australian company Brumby Books Holdings for roughly $400,000. Both deals include selected APG inventory. If no better bids are made by April 20, the deals could close by May 1.
BEA Concert Canceled
BEA executives have canceled the annual fund-raiser for the Book Industry Foundation that had been scheduled for this year's convention. The cancellation came after Flying Dolphin Press, which was a sponsor of the event, learned that concert headliner Jon Bon Jovi's book, Believe, originally set for November, is being delayed, and he would not be at the show.
Perseus Integrates PGW
Perseus is combining its existing sales force with that of PGW and has offered positions to 68 out of the 110 PGW employees. Consortium publishers will continue to have their own sales force. For the complete story on the restructuring, go to our Web site at www.publishersweekly.com/perseusintegrates.
Skurnick To Greenberg
Victoria Skurnick will leave her post as editor-in-chief of Book-of-the-Month Club for a position as an agent at Levine Greenberg, starting May 21. Skurnick will be acquiring commercial and literary fiction, in addition to general nonfiction.
Correction
For our Year in Bestsellers issue (Mar. 26), two children's titles from Barron's were inadvertently omitted. In Hardcover Frontlist, the picture book The Night at the Museum by Milan Trenc sold 185,000 copies and is ranked #41. In Paperback Frontlist, Night at the Museum: A Junior Novelization by Leslie Goldman sold 485,000 copies; it is ranked #7.
