Harcourt San Diego Office to Close

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 1/10/2008 1:36:00 PM

Employees in Harcourt’s San Diego trade division were told Thursday that the office will close June 30. The announcement is the latest step in the integration of the Harcourt and Houghton Mifflin trade operations into the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade & Reference Publishers division. The San Diego office has about 65 employees. Few details about the closing were available Thursday evening, although HMH is believed to be offering the chance for some San Diego employees to relocate to company offices in Boston and New York.

The decision to close the San Diego office was not a surprise. Since the consolidation of the Harcourt and HM trade units began, HMH has said that two of Harcourt’s top executives—president Dan Farley and children’s publisher Lori Benton—will leave the company at the end of January. Farley lost the top spot at HMH Trade to Gary Gentel and on Wednesday HM’s Betsy Groban was named head of the combined children’s group.