Catching up: a look at recent changes in children's publishing. (Children's Books)

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Authors: Diane Roback and Jason Britton
Date: Mar. 11, 2002
From: Publishers Weekly(Vol. 249, Issue 10)
Publisher: PWxyz, LLC
Document Type: Article
Length: 3,112 words

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We offer this roundup in an effort to pull together the various transitions, expansions and acquisitions that have taken place over the last year. The information is not comprehensive, although it does aim to cover the majority of recent key shifts in the business.

A number of major changes have taken place at Random House Children's Books recently, many of them affecting the overall structure of not only the children's division but Random House Inc. The most recent of these changes, which took place on February 28, was Craig Virden's announcement that he was resigning as president and publisher of the division, which sparked a major realignment within the company. Virden hopes to get back to publishing and editing, rather than administration; Chip Gibson, formerly president of the Crown Publishing Group, has moved over to the children's division to succeed him.

The other major news from Random House came last August, when it acquired Golden Books for $84.4 million, making Random House the largest publisher of English-language children's books. More than 60 people lost their jobs in the initial merging of the two companies (Golden is now part of the newly established Random House Young Readers Group, overseen by v-p and publisher Kate Klimo) and in December several more people were let go.

The associate publisher position held by Kevin Jones was eliminated when Felicia Frazier was named v-p, director of brand management; Frazier had been director of mass market merchandising at Random House. In October, several new editorial directors were named: Courtney Silk, for coloring and activity books; Pat Brigandi, for Golden storybooks and board books; and Diane Mulclrow, for Little Golden Books; while Cathy Goldsmith took over management of the combined RH/Golden art department. The editorial directors report to Amy Jarashow, who was recently named associate publisher of Golden and Disney. Starting next year, RI-I will use its Crawfordsville, md., warehouse as the national distribution center for its children's and audio books; the site was acquired as part of the Golden purchase.

The first list from Disney Books for Young Readers was published last year, after a licensing agreement was signed with Disney in 2000; Chris Angelilli is editorial director of the imprint and reports to Jarashow. Further evidence of the Golden integration had some staffers--from the editorial, art, marketing and publicity departments--move from their Seventh Ave. location into Random's 1540 Broadway offices.

Prior to the Golden purchase, editorial groups within Random House Children's Books were realigned--putting the Knopf Delacorte Dell Young Readers Group under v-p and publisher Beverly Horowitz and Random Louse Books for Young Readers under Klimo--and new editorial directors of those groups were announced. Joan Slattery was named editorial director of Knopf/Crown; Francoise Bui of Doubleday; Wendy Loggia editorial director of media services; and Karen Wojtyla editorial director of global projects.

A number of new initiatives were also announced, including Random View Books, an e-book publishing program, launched last fall, as were new imprints Wendy Lamb Books and David Fickling Books. Lamb had been an...

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Source Citation
Roback, Diane, and Jason Britton. "Catching up: a look at recent changes in children's publishing. (Children's Books)." Publishers Weekly, vol. 249, no. 10, 11 Mar. 2002, p. 27+. Accessed 1 Mar. 2021.
  

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