TODAY'S NEWS

Vroman's Wins PW's Bookseller of the Year
by Kevin Howell
One of the oldest bookstores in the country, 114 year-old Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, Calif., has been named Publishers Weekly's Bookseller of the Year.

The bookstore was founded in 1894 by Adam Clark. "He believed in books, philanthropy, community and people: his employees and his customers," said Allison Hill, Vroman's president and COO. "We honor his legacy by staying true to those core values. We gauge our success by our ability to run a profitable business while committing ourselves to doing the right thing for our employees, for our customers and for our community." Read on »

Nudo Joins Shelfari
David Nudo, who stepped down as publisher of PW in January, has been named director of sales and marketing at Shelfari. Nudo will head Shelfari's international sales efforts and will also work with publishers to promote their titles on Shelfari. Josh Hug, CEO of the Seattle-based Shelfari, said the site only began accepting advertising in December and has not made an effort to attract publishers' financial support. Read on »

Ingram Digital Restructures
Ingram Digital, Ingram's digital distribution arm, created four new business groups in an effort that company president James Gray said is being done to accommodate the needs of its growing list of clients. The new groups are educational solutions, institutional solutions, retail solutions and content solutions.

Under the direction of William Chesser, the education group will focus on the sale of content to students in the professional, higher education and scholastic markets, utilizing its VitalSource file format. The institutional unit will specialize in selling e-books to all library markets via the MyiLibrary platform. Rich Rosy, formerly head of business development for Asia Pacific, has been named head of the group. Andrew Weinstein has been named v-p and general manager of the retail unit, which will work with publishers and online retailers sell e-books and digital audio books. The content solutions group will be centered around Ingram's digital asset management and distribution warehouse and will supply solutions for the other Ingram divisions as well as for publishers. Tyler Ruse has been named v-p and general manager of the group.

Audible Stockholders Accept Amazon Bid
Despite some protests from minority stockholders, Amazon's $11.50 per share offer for Audible was overwhelmingly accepted yesterday with shareholders holding 87% of Audible's stock tendering their shares. Stockholders who have not tendered their shares have until March 14 to do so.

Amazon said that after March 14, unless the offer period is extended, it plans to complete the acquisition "as soon as practicable." Friday, Red Oak Partners, which owns 1.4% of Audible stock, called the offer too low and said it would not tender its shares.

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Job Moves
Peter Quandt, who founded the educational and library publisher Haights Cross, has created a new holding company, New Castle Media, with the aim acquiring of an online company that specializes in must-have information.

Alibris has promoted Liz Derr to chief operating officer. Derr has been v-p of engineering at Alibris for the past two years. As COO, Derr continues to lead the company's engineering department, and will manage Alibris's partnerships with online and traditional retail partners and head Alibris's customer service organization.

Sophie Cottrell, v-p and associate publisher at Little, Brown, has been appointed v-p, communications director at Hachette Book Group USA. She succeeds April Hattori who left Hachette last month. She will report to Hachette CEO David Young, and will also join the executive management board. Sophie will begin this new role as soon as her replacement is in place.

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Tori Tells, Stop Whining, Start Living; Leave Us Alone
Tori Spelling visits Good Morning America, The View and Larry King Live for more sTORI TELLING (Simon SpotlightEntertainment, $24.95). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Rup & Co. Hit Le Cirque
Rupert Murdoch came out to fete one of his media conglomerate's authors late last month at a party he hosted, with his wife Wendi, at Le Crique. The party was for A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist And a Christian (Zondervan) by Zhao Qizheng, the vice chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and evangelist Luis Palau. Pictured here (l. to r.) at the event are: Ye Xiaowen, director general of SARA (State Administration for Religious Affairs); Murdoch; Jane Friedman; Zondervan CEO Moe Girkins; Luis Palau; Zhao Qizheng; Wu Wei; Xie Feng, minister and DCM of the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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