Holton to Succeed Marcus At Scholastic

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 4/11/2005

At press time last week, Lisa Holton still seemed headed to Scholastic to succeed Barbara Marcus as head of its U.S. children's book group. Holton's path from Disney, where she was senior v-p, publisher, global children's books, to Scholastic was blocked at least temporarily when Disney dragged its feet about letting her out of her contract. A Scholastic spokesperson said the company expects that the dispute "will be resolved to everyone's satisfaction." When she arrives at Scholastic in May, Holton will be responsible for the book group's trade and fair divisions, while Judy Newman will continue to head clubs and continuities.

Disney has already moved to replace Holton, promoting Jeanne Mosure to v-p, global publisher and general manager of global children's books. The company also promoted Brenda Bowen to associate publisher and editor-in-chief of global children's books, and promoted Lynn Waggoner to v-p for global books and U.S. associate publisher.

Marcus told PW she decided to leave Scholastic after 22 years because she had "done what I came to Scholastic to do. It's time for someone else to take over." Marcus, who will leave in July after publication of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was a major force behind the expansion of Scholastic's children book publishing and distribution business. When she arrived at Scholastic, book publishing and distribution was a $120-million business; that business now has sales of more than $1.2 billion.