News Briefs

Separate lawsuits that had been filed against Reader's Choice and Earl Kaplan by Reader's Digest on behalf of its Books Are Fun subsidiary were settled in late May. According to a statement from both parties, the lawsuits will be dismissed “on the basis of a confidential settlement payment.” No party admitted to any wrongdoing, and Imagine Nation Books is free to continue in business. RD acquired BAF from Kaplan in 1999.

Steve Ross has been named president and publisher of HarperCollins's Collins U.S. division. Ross, who's leaving his post as senior v-p and publisher of Random House's Crown division, will step into the role previously held by Joe Tessitore. Ross will begin the job next month and report to HarperCollins Worldwide president Brian Murray.

With Steve Ross's departure from Crown, Tina Constable has been named v-p and publisher of Crown, Crown Business and Crown Forum, effective July 1. Constable, who has been at Crown for 20 years, is currently v-p and executive director of publicity. Also effective July 1, Philip Patrick, currently v-p and director of marketing, will take on the additional titles of president and publisher of Three Rivers Press and publisher of e-books and digital content for Crown.

Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides's 2003 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, is Oprah Winfrey's selection for her summer book club. Middlesex, published by Picador, has already sold more than one million copies, according to Nielsen Bookscan, making the title considerably more popular than most books chosen for Oprah's club.

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a consortium of 12 Midwest research universities, has agreed to participate in Google's library-scanning project. Under the agreement, Google will work with the CIC to digitize select collections across all of its libraries, a process that could include as many as 10 million volumes. Google will provide the CIC with a digital copy of public domain materials digitized for the project, which the consortium will use to create a shared digital repository.

In the profile of the Strand (May 28), owner Nancy Bass Wyden's name was misspelled.