Lightning Source, Ingram's POD subsidiary, is being combined with Ingram Book Group. The new entity will be called Ingram Lightning Group and be led by David "Skip" Prichard, president and CEO, who was appointed head of the Book Group earlier this year (Shelf Awareness, January 22, 2008).
J. Kirby Best, president and CEO of Lightning Source for six years, will help with the transition and then leave the company. David Taylor, who has been Lightning's senior v-p of global sales and managing director of Lightning Source U.K., will become president of Lightning Source and report to Prichard.
"When Lightning Source was established 11 years ago, it was important to carve out a separate niche for purposes of clarity in the marketplace," Ingram Content Companies chairman John Ingram said in a statement. "Today, Lightning is widely recognized and, in fact, is known as 'the authority' in print on demand technology and service. Along the way, we have also learned how important it is for Lightning and Ingram Book to coordinate their work very closely."
Just this week while publisher PublicAffairs awaited more copies from traditional printers, Lightning Source printed thousands of copies of What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception by former Bush White House press secretary Scott McClellan that went to Ingram Book to fulfill orders from booksellers (Shelf Awareness, June 5, 2008).