Bloomsbury to Reorganize, Dropping Country Focus for Global Publishing Divisions

Bloomsbury announced a worldwide reorganization, effective March 1, that eliminates their geographically-driven structure and replaces it with four global publishing divisions. So the company's units will comprise adult (run by Richard Charkin); children's & educational (see below for the new executive); academic & professional (under Jonathan Glasspool), and information & business development (still headed by Kathy Rooney). Their offices in the UK, USA, Germany and, most recently, Australia, will each serve the four publishing divisions. Evan Schnittman runs sales, marketing, publicity rights and technology as a global services division for the entire company, and Penny Edwards runs a global production department. Alexandra Pringle in the UK will be promoted to worldwide group adult editor-in-chief.

Chief executive Nigel Newton says in the announcement, "The global market place is changing rapidly, with a dramatic increase in digital publishing and global customers, such as Amazon, Google and Apple, who are not focused within national boundaries. For Bloomsbury to take best advantage of this, we are restructuring on a global basis to better maximixe the opportunities the future will bring. We believe this will give us a real advantage in our mission to publish books of excellence and originality."

Charkin adds that he believes Bloomsbury is the first trade publisher of scale to reorganize itself in global fashion like this. "Digital technology is affecting everyone irrespective of where they sit" among Bloomsbury's offices, Charkin said. "Our biggest customers are now global and we need to reflect their global nature as well as our own." In the future, the company's financial reports will add data according to the four new divisions.

Within the newly-created structure, Macmillan UK Children's managing director Emma Hopkin, will move to Bloomsbury in the new role of managing director, children's & educational publishing. Sarah Odedina will be publishing director, children's fiction and Jayne Parsons publishing director, education and children's non-fiction, both reporting to Hopkin. Odedina will also take on an international role as group editor in chief acquisitions - fiction.

From PublishersLunch