Latest News from The Bookseller

New roles for PRH's Franklin and Cugnoni Dan Franklin is to step away from his divisional responsibilities at Penguin Random House’s Vintage, but will remain publishing director at Jonathan Cape. Meanwhile Rachel Cugnoni, publishing director of the paperback imprint, has been promoted to a new cross-divisional role as publishing director for Vintage. She will continue with her role at the paperback imprint in addition to the new job.

Tonkinson's Pan Mac imprint named Bluebird Carole Tonkinson’s new non-fiction imprint at Pan Macmillan is to be called Bluebird, with the tagline “books for life”. Tonkinson joined Pan Macmillan from HarperCollins in autumn 2014, and has already signed a number of books for her inspirational lifestyle imprint, which specialises in parenting, inspirational memoir, wellness and self-realisation, including cookery, business books and self-help. Bluebird will publish 24 books a year, split between UK authors and buy-ins from the US.

Six jobs to go as Egmont USA closes Six Egmont employees will lose their jobs at the end of the month following the closure of the US office, the company has confirmed. The company also said it will publish its spring 2015 list and books will continue to be available via Random House, but it did not say what would happen to authors signed to Egmont USA moving forward. Egmont announced yesterday (21st January) that it will close its office in America at the end of the month because it has failed to find a buyer for the business.

Mehta pays tribute to Master Sonny Mehta has paid tribute to former colleague Simon Master [pictured], who died suddenly last week, with Mehta telling The Bookseller he felt “extremely privileged to have known him”. Master died on Friday (16th January) while on holiday, at the age of 70. He was formerly deputy group chairman of Random House, and had also worked at Pan, where he was editorial director, publishing director and m.d. in the 1970s and 1980s.

Innovations from DK, Bloomsbury at BETT Several publishers are this week launching digital children’s products at the BETT show, including a new Telling the Time app from Bloomsbury and an interactive website from Dorling Kindersley (DK). The digital education show, which is taking place at the Excel centre in London from the 21st-24th January, is expected to host 30,000 visitors over two days. More than 700 companies are exhibiting, including DK, whose www.dkfindout.com website – an encyclopedia for children - went live yesterday (21st January).

Alma hits £1m in turnover Alma Books has hit a milestone of £1m in annual turnover. The independent publisher, founded in 2005, saw sales increase 28.8% to around £1m in the year to the end of December 2014.  Sales were boosted by two prominent film tie-ins and the Alma adult Classics range, which is now 42% of the business, while Alma Books generated 58% of sales. E-books by contrast are a relatively small part of Alma’s business and account for 6.5% of total sales. Net profit was around 17.25%.

Tamblyn's 'surprise' at Canada competition demand Kobo’s president and chief content officer Michael Tamblyn has said he is “surprised” that Canada's Competition Bureau has asked Kobo along with Indigo Books and Music to hand over more records to help its investigation into anti-competitive e-book pricing.

Authors receive their PLR statements More than 22,000 authors will be receiving a total of just over £6m from library loans made from July 2013 to June 2014. Public lending rate, or PLR, is the money paid to authors when their books are borrowed from public libraries. Currently the rate only covers printed books. Statements telling authors how much money they will receive for the 2013/14 period are being sent out this week, and money will be paid in February.

Google's appeal explored by John Murray John Murray has acquired a first book by Laszlo Bock, head of people operations at Google, titled Work Rules!. Publisher Georgina Laycock bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Hachette US. Work Rules! is said to explore why, according to LinkedIn, Google is the most sought after place to work on the planet, receiving over 2,500,000 unique applications for jobs every year.

Charlie Hebdo cartoons to be published in Tokyo A Japanese publisher is set to publish a book containing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, including those of the Prophet Muhammad, with the aim of providing readers “with food for thought.” The Japanese Times has reported that Tokyo-based publisher Daisan Shokan will publish the 64-page title on 10th February, currently titled Isuramu Fushi Ka, Heito Ka, which can be translated as Satire on Islam or Hate?

Tate Publishing hires Klein as executive editor Tate Publishing has appointed Jacky Klein to the role of executive editor, where she will take control of Tate’s book publishing programme. In the new role, Klein will be responsible for Tate’s exhibition catalogues, exhibition-related books, standalone art books and children’s titles.

Landgrebe made publisher at Germany's Suhrkamp German literary publisher Suhrkamp Verlag has completed a reorganisation it started almost two years ago, with a “stable financial and legal framework” for the publishing house now in place. As part of the changes, Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz, chairman of the board of Suhrkamp, will withdraw from “daily business within the next few months”. She will then sit on the supervisory board of Suhrkamp. Dr Jonathan Landgrebe will take over as publisher, and as chairman of the board.