Perseus Book Group has unveiled its plans for PGW, outlined yesterday
in letters to Perseus employees and PGW publishers from, respectively,
CEO David Steinberger and COO Joe Mangan. (Perseus signed up 124 PGW
publishers after PGW's parent company, AMS, filed for bankruptcy.)
Among the main changes:
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In related news, AMS is selling some of its foreign properties, which were not part of its December bankruptcy filing and not part of the sale to Baker & Taylor. AMS expects to close on the deals by May 1.
In the U.K., Publishers Group UK and H.I. Marketing are being bought by Cathy Parson and Medwyn Hughes, who are the commercial director and divisional director of Publishers Group UK. They are also the founders of H.I. Marketing, which they sold to AMS in 2002.
In Australia, Bookwise International and Bookwise Asia are being sold to Brumby Books, which has headquarters in Melbourne.
- A majority of PGW's sales staff is being offered jobs and will become part of a larger, reorganized sales force that will represent Perseus, Perseus Distribution clients and PGW clients.
- A majority of people in PGW's business development, sales, marketing, marketing information, catalogue management and publisher services departments have been offered employment.
- Altogether Perseus is offering employment to 68 PGW staffers.
- Warehouse, customer service, order management, accounting and IT operations will be moved to Perseus Distribution facilities in Jackson, Tenn., and few if any PGW employees in those areas will be offered jobs. Perseus is hiring more than 100 people in Jackson for these and other positions.
- Perseus has yet to decide its international sales strategy and organization but intends to announce a plan "shortly."
- Beginning August 1, all of Perseus's PGW publishers will be distributed from Jackson, from a third warehouse.
- PGW president Rich Freese will leave the company after July 31.
- PGW's Berkeley, Calif., office will remain open.
- The PGW name is being used throughout the transition period, which ends July 31, and Perseus hopes to obtain rights to the PGW name from AMS after that date.
- Perseus's Consortium subsidiary is "unaffected by these changes."
- Some of the people who are being offered employment are: Kim Wylie, Elise Cannon, Eric Green, Sue Ostfield, Susan McConnell, Kevin Votel, Eric Kettunen, Sarah Rosenberg, Heather Cameron, Karla Simmons, Sean Shoemaker, Matthew Chilcott and Roxanne Schwartz.
- Perseus's and PGW's field sales forces will be combined to create one organization of 16 people that will be headed by Elise Cannon, field sales director for PGW.
- Dave Tripp, head of field sales at Perseus, will move to national accounts.
- Kim Wylie continues to be responsible for all PGW client publisher sales and reports to Matty Goldberg.
- Rick Monteith will head a single ID/mass merchandisers group.
- Sarah Wolf of Perseus and Eric Green of PGW will direct a bi-coastal special sales team.
- Liz Tzetzo remains national accounts director for Perseus and Perseus Distribution clients, reporting to Matty Goldberg.
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In related news, AMS is selling some of its foreign properties, which were not part of its December bankruptcy filing and not part of the sale to Baker & Taylor. AMS expects to close on the deals by May 1.
In the U.K., Publishers Group UK and H.I. Marketing are being bought by Cathy Parson and Medwyn Hughes, who are the commercial director and divisional director of Publishers Group UK. They are also the founders of H.I. Marketing, which they sold to AMS in 2002.
In Australia, Bookwise International and Bookwise Asia are being sold to Brumby Books, which has headquarters in Melbourne.