As 2009 comes to a close we wanted to celebrate by bringing you a week’s worth of your favorite articles that we’re run on Publishing Perspectives. We’ll be back on Monday, January 4, with our next new feature. In the meantime, enjoy the best of ‘09 and check our news blog for updates and analysis. Today, industry consultant Rüdiger Wischenbart …
Global Trade Talk: PEN Prioritizes Indigenous Language Preservation; Club Bertelsmann Becomes Zeilenreich; Amazon International Profits Up
By Edward Nawotka and Siobhan O’Leary Last Wednesday, London-based International PEN elected Canadian writer John Ralston Saul as the organization’s new director, replacing Czech writer Jirí Grušá who has held the position for the last six years. In an interview with CBC Radio, Saul said that in addition to PEN’s traditional role of fighting for freedom of expression, he would try …
German Buch News: Bertelsmann Founder Mohn Dies; Roth Wins Die Welt Lit Prize
By Siobhan O’Leary Reinhard Mohn, the post-war founder of German media giant Bertelsmann, has died at the age of 88 (as reported in a press release from the company and covered in BuchReport). Mohn was born in Gütersloh in 1921, the fifth generation of the Bertelsmann/Mohn business family, and took over the reins of his family’s printing and publishing house C. …
German Buch News: G+J’s Buchholz joins B’mann’s Exec Board
By Siobhan O’Leary Boersenblatt reports that Gruner + Jahr CEO Bernd Buchholz has been named to Bertelsmann’s Executive Board. He will continue as CEO of G+J and will receive no additional compensation for this new role. After a short stint in politics, Buchholz worked for G+J in various capacities starting in the late 1990s and has been CEO since the …
German Buch News: Bertelsmann Pay Cuts, Twitter Usage Up
By Siobhan O’Leary Executives at Bertelsmann’s Gutersloh headquarters were recently hit with diminished bonuses (as much as 50% lower in some cases) and salary cuts. Now, the pay cuts are affecting other employees at Gutersloh, says Buchmarkt. They will not be seeing the 2.5% pay scale increase that was planned for this month, and employees being paid over and above the …