Scholastic Exec Resigns; Taylor & Francis Vet Helps Brits Launch Stateside
by Jim Milliot, and Steven Zeitchik, PW NewsLine -- Publishers Weekly, 2/25/2004
Phil Friedman, a longtime Grolier executive and who most recently served as chief financial officer at Scholastic Library Publishing, has resigned to pursue other interests. Friedman is credited with leading the team that developed Grolier's online program as well as its specialty and academic reference programs. Following Scholastic's purchase of Grolier he became part of Scholastic's library group. A spokesperson said Scholastic is looking to replace Friedman, though no successor has been appointed.Friedman is the third prominent executive to leave Scholastic this year. Michael Jacobs, senior v-p of the trade division, resigned in early February, and CFO Kevin McEnery left later in the month.
In other reference news, former Taylor &Francis executive Robert Rooney is starting the American beachhead of Jessica Kingsley, a U.K. reference publisher concentrating on books about autism aimed at parents and educators. JK was a T&F client when Rooney worked there. The company has not yet signed with a distributor.
The American office will start with a sales and marketing operation and hopes ultimately to move to editorial. JK does about 100 books per year and had revenue of roughly 3 million pounds last year. "This is the next healthy step for the growth of the imprint," Rooney says. "We already had a healthy revenue base but we wanted to grow outside the U.K., and you can't do that through a third party."
