Who are this year’s Media Mensches? Meet The New York Times‘ Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson, director Errol Morris, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux’s Lorin Stein, and 60 Minutes‘ Jeffrey Fager.
Felix Gillette looks at CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips, "a seasoned, London-based reporter. But he is Read More
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt issued a statement shortly after noon confirming—in extremely vague terms—that layoffs are indeed taking place: "In light of the challenging conditions worldwide, the company has taken a hard look at its business and is making changes in some of its other operations to lower expenses." Media Mob called Josef Blumenfeld, who wrote Read More
In a memo sent out this morning mere hours after the publishing world was stunned by news of a major reorganization at Random House, Simon & Schuster C.E.O. Carolyn Reidy told staff that 35 jobs would be cut in what she called an unavoidavble response to the "current bookselling marketplace and what may very Read More
Eric Wolff went to work for the consulting firm McKinsey & Company after graduating from college in the spring of 2005. As he described it at the time on his Facebook page, he spent the following summer reading books that “warn of the inadequacy of the American Dream, and how it tempts generally good, intelligent Read More
The Associated Press’ Hillel Italie is reporting that Rebecca Saletan, who became publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt when the company’s component parts were merged by the Irish multimedia firm in January, has resigned from her position and will serve out her last day on December 10th. Ms. Saletan’s departure will come two weeks after Read More
The New York Times today has an interview today with Jeremy Dickens, president of Education Media and Publishing Group, the holding company that owns struggling publishing house Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. In the interview Mr. Dickens reveals that lifting the temporary freeze on trade acquisition that was reported Monday by Publishers Weekly might be Read More
What should media organizations do to survive? "We should embrace change,” Jeff Jarvis tells John Koblin. “Instead, too often we fight change. That’s the nature of organizations and institutions that hold power. Change might mean losing power. The great and magnificent irony of online—this would really send [Ron] Rosenbaum’s spine up—is that in my Read More
Though prayers this week should undoubtedly be with the editors of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, who were told a few days ago by their CEO that they can no longer afford to acquire new books, it should not go unremarked that editors at other houses are being forced to give up something almost as essential: lunch! Read More
Publishers Weekly reports that editors at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have been instructed to stop acquiring books until further notice. According to Josef Blumenfeld, the company’s VP for communications, the freeze is not permanent, though no date has been set for when it might lift. "In this case it’s a symbol of doing things Read More
Houghton Mifflin proved itself to be an admirably nimble house this morning when news came that Jon Wertheim, a sportswriter under contract there, had agreed to write a book centered around last weekend’s historic Wimbledon match between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Mr. Wertheim, who wrote a cover story on the match for this Read More
