Changes at S&S Kids Joins Buffy, Blues Clues

A number of organizational changes have been made at Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing that are designed, in the words of one insider, to get "everyone's focus to be a little less broad." The primary change in the arrangement consolidates all media tie-ins into one imprint, Simon Spotlight, which previously concentrated only on tie-ins for younger readers, under newly promoted associate publisher, Jen Bergstrom. The tie-ins, which include a number of well-known licenses from TV and other media, had previously been split along age lines across several imprints.

Meanwhile, Eloise Flood, who for the last six months had been paperback publisher and had overseen all titles in that format, will now be editorial director for Simon Pulse and will focus on teen mass-market books—but only those that aren't media tie-ins (which come under Bergstrom). The company has also added a layer between Flood and children's group president Rick Richter in executive v-p Robin Corey.

Corey, the longstanding publisher of novelty books for young readers at Little Simon and publisher at Simon Spotlight, now has a number of new areas of oversight. She will be ultimately responsible for a number of teen lines—the non–tie-in paperbacks that Flood handles and, because of Bergstrom's expanded role, Corey will also oversee the teen tie-in program.

The changes are meant to shift editors and employees who are extended across a number of areas so they can concentrate heavily on one or two lists. Flood, for instance, who had overseen all paperbacks—tie-ins and non–tie-ins, young- and teen-oriented books—before the shift, now handles just teen non–tie-ins.

In another move, Ellen Krieger, who had been working under Flood as associate publisher of Aladdin Paperbacks, will retain her title but will report directly to Richter.