In response to the all-too-familiar crises in the U.S. economy as well as the continuing downtrend in advertising revenue afflicting media properties, four editors at Publishers Weekly, including editor-in-chief Sara Nelson and longtime executive editor Daisy Maryles, were let go last week in a company-wide staff reduction. Ron Shank, v-p and group publisher, appointed Brian Kenney, editor-in-chief of sister publication School Library Journal, to the post of editorial director in charge of PW, with business and news director Jim Milliot and executive managing editor Michael Coffey handling the day-to-day operations.
Kenney, a librarian, has been at SLJ since 2005; before that he was an executive editor at Library Journal. He will now be editorial director of all three magazines—PW, SLJ and LJ. Kenney said that Reed Business, which owns the magazines, “is not collapsing them in any way. All three publications and their various products will remain strong and independently committed to their respective readerships.” Shank added, “Kenney's mission will be to work with the group to maximize the opportunities of digital publishing and elevate quality content for the greatest exposure.”
In addition to the departure of Nelson and Maryles, two other PW editors were let go: Elizabeth Devereaux, children's reviews editor, and Kevin Howell, bookselling and audio editor.
The weekly adult bestsellers, which Maryles had handled for more than three decades, will now be handled by Dick Donahue (ddonahue@reedbusiness.com); religion reviews will continue to be handled by Marcia Z. Nelson, who will now also be in charge of the Religion BookLine newsletter and our Religion Update supplements, previously supervised by Maryles; Marcia Nelson can be reached at pwreligion@sbcglobal.net. Children's book reviews queries should be sent to children's book editor Diane Roback. Audio reviews will now be handled by Parul Sehgal (parul.sehgal@reedbusiness.com); news stories involving audio should be sent to Jim Milliot (jmilliot@reedbusiness.com). Audio listings will continue to be handled by Shannon Maughan (maughanse@verizon.net). As for our pre-BEA issue (April 27), formerly handled by Kevin Howell, all exhibitor listing materials should be sent to Jill Tardiff (jtardiff-publishersweekly@att.net).
