The Crown Publishing Group inherited by Markus Dohle has been completely transformed, from a group that included a widely disparate group of imprints, formats, and technologies run by Jenny Frost to a streamlined operation focused on a still broad range of titles, but that are now housed in more identifiable imprints.
The newest change came last Thursday when Maya Mavjee, appointed president and publisher of the group in December, announced a restructuring that divides Crown into three distinct editorial divisions and creates a unified trade paperback program. Shaye Areheart Books will be closed, with Areheart serving as an editor-at-large, working with some of her longtime authors. The Broadway Business and Crown Business imprints have been combined under the Crown banner and a new imprint has been formed, Crown Archetype, that will house all of the group's brand authors (authors with media platforms) such as Suzanne Somers.
The restructuring resulted in some high-ranking executives leaving the group, including Diane Salvatore, who had been publisher of Broadway Books, and Lorraine Glennon, senior editor. Consolidation of the publicity department under David Drake led to the departure of Katie Wainwright. Executives with new roles include Tina Constable, who moves from publisher of Crown Publishers to head the Category/Brand Publishing Group. Tina Pohlman is leaving Spiegal & Grau to become v-p publisher of Three Rivers Press and Broadway Paperbacks, which will house all of Crown's trade paperback activity. Philip Patrick, former Three Rivers publisher, is now v-p for digital and marketing strategy and publisher of the Crown Digital Group.
This was the second restructuring of Crown in less than six months. When Mavjee was appointed in December, the group's nontrade units, including Random House Audio Publishing and Fodor's Travel Group, were separated from the group. Those companies found new homes in late February under Nina von Moltke, v-p, digital publishing development, while the Princeton Review, Sylvan Learning, and Prima Game became part of the Children's Book division.
