Perl Leaving Rodale to Join S&S

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 4/28/2008 7:48:00 AM

Rodale publisher Liz Perl is joining S&S as senior v-p, marketing for adult publishing. She will begin May 19, reporting to Michael Selleck, executive v-p of sales and marketing. Perl will step in to the job Selleck held before he was promoted into his current position.

Perl joined Rodale in 2005 and while at the company oversaw the publication of more than 20 NYT bestsellers, including The Intellectual Devotional by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim, LL Cool J’s Platinum Workout, and An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. She created branded book programs for franchises such as The Biggest Loser, The Abs Diet and Eat This, Not That; and, as part of the Rodale 360 initiative, developed multimedia marketing campaigns including magazine and online partnerships, network television partnerships, event marketing, direct mail and direct television. Prior to Rodale, Perl held positions at Penguin Group (USA) and HarperCollins. On April 1, Perl gained a new boss when Karen Rinaldi left Bloomsbury to take on the new post of senior v-p, general manager and publishing director of Rodale Books. No word at press time if Perl will be replaced at Rodale.

In her new position, Perl will work with all of S&S’s adult imprints (Atria, Free Press, Pocket Books, Scribner, Simon & Schuster, and Touchstone-Fireside) on marketing activities, including advertising and promotion, and will be responsible for all cross-imprint projects and promotions, trade and online retail marketing, and academic marketing.

Selleck said Perl’s “ability to think big-picture and create marketing campaigns that build brands through nontraditional means will be invaluable as we seek new ways to generate consumer awareness and sales for our books.”