Publishers Lunch

Today's Meal

People, Etc.

Publisher of the Penguin Random House Audio Group Amanda D'Acierno has been promoted to executive vice president.

At Harper One, Jenn Jensen has been promoted to associate director of marketing.

Bonnier will expand their North American publishing operations, adding the Bonnier Zaffre imprint (which publishes authors including Wilbur Smith and Lynda La Plante). Valentina Rice has been hired as vp, sales, marketing & publicity for Bonnier Zaffre in the US, reporting to ceo Mark Smith. Rice spent 15 years at Penguin, most recently as vp, international sales & marketing, before launching her own e-commerce site helping small-batch artisanal food producers get national distribution.

The Paris Review has updated their online masthead, now listing Lorin Stein as a "past editor" and continuing to list Sadie Stein as an "advisory editor" (and cleaning up errors like the listing of the late Robert Silvers). Managing editor Nicole Rudick tops the masthead for now.

Bookselling
In a sweet story, Barnes & Noble vice president of retail operations Frank Morabito visited third graders at Tomoka Elementary in Ormond Beach, FL to thank them for their efforts in supporting the chain's store in Daytona Beach. The class had written to BN ceo Demos Parneros with concern after learning that the Daytona Beach store might close. Morabito told them, "When we got the letter, it was important to us, not only that we didn't disappoint you but we didn't disappoint the community. So we tried really hard to keep it open and this time we were able to."

To be clear, however, the store was "saved" some time ago. The Daytona News Journal had reported in mid-October that BN had agreed to another one-year extension of their lease, through 2018. At the time, the paper cited a petition from Daytona State College instructor Mark Preziosi as helping. The landlord had indicated that Barnes & Noble has been "going year to year, their preference" for the past three years. Spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating confirms to us that Morabito's visit was a delayed commemoration of the renewal.

Also
Kristen Roupenian's short story "Cat Person" in the new issue New Yorker went viral over the weekend. As she tells Deborah Treisman in an interview, "I just completed an M.F.A. at the University of Michigan, and I'm putting the finishing touches on a short-story collection. I'm also at work on a novel." Roupenian is currently represented by Jenni Ferrari-Adler, though previously was represented by Rob Weisbach. At Michigan, her novel (Look After Me) and two of her stories "The Matchbox Sign" and "The Night Runner") won Hopgood Awards.

800-CEO-READ will give their annual Jack Covert Award for Contribution to the Business Book Industry to Tom Peters