TODAY'S NEWS

McGraw-Hill Education Announces Digital Initiative
By Lynn Andriani
McGraw-Hill Education today announced the creation of its Center for Digital Innovation, a research and development center that will focus on bringing technology to elementary and secondary classrooms. The Center will be led by McGraw-Hill Education’s team of former teachers, engineers and software developers.

The Center, in Bothell, Wash., is developing digital platforms that are customized by state standards, district requirements, and individual teacher and student needs. The Center’s digital platforms will allow teachers to quickly assess a student’s proficiency level, so that teachers can alter their instruction based on the needs of each student. Programs will cultivate critical thinking and teach students ways to use the Internet for problem-solving. Read on »

Haights Cross Looks to Restructure Debt
By Jim Milliot
Haights Cross, parent company of Recorded Books and Triumph Learning/Buckle Down, is in the processing of restructuring its debt, a move that includes a proposal to its investors for a voluntary exchange of its 12.5% senior notes for equity in the company. Under the plan, Haights is offering 120.21 shares of stock for each $1,000 in notes. The company said that Monarch Alternative, which owns 33% of the notes, supports the plan. Deadline for the offering is July 6. Read on »

ReadingGroupGuides.com Releases Survey Results
By Lynn Andriani
ReadingGroupGuides.com recently conducted a survey of book club members and found that 83% of groups read both hardcovers and paperbacks, and that at least half of book club members are on Goodreads or Facebook.

More than 7,700 respondents completed the 62-question survey, which asked where members get information about books, if they use online social and book networking sites, and whether their book-buying habits have changed in the last year. Carol Fitzgerald, co-founder and president of the Book Report Network, which owns ReadingGroupGuides.com, said the survey results demonstrated that “a lot has changed” since the last survey in 2001. Read on »

Bookseller Teams with New Publisher on Obama Book
By Claire Kirch
Chicago bookseller John Presta, who closed his bricks-and-mortar store, Reading on Walden, three years ago, and currently is revamping his online presence, is jumping on the Obama bandwagon in a memoir about his life as an independent bookseller in the Windy City. The Elevator Group, located in a Philadelphia suburb, will publish Mr. and Mrs. Grassroots: How Barack Obama, Two Bookstore Owners, and 300 Volunteers Did It in January 2010. The book focuses on how Presta and his wife, Michelle, worked closely with Barack Obama’s grassroots campaign in 2000, when Obama ran unsuccessfully for Congress, and again in 2004, when Obama won his race for the U.S. Senate. Presta intertwines this first-hand account of his work on Obama’a two political campaigns with reflections on his experiences running an independent bookstore in southwest Chicago. Read on »

Comings and Goings
If you've been laid off recently, left your job or landed a new position and would like to pass along your contact information to others in the business, send details to pwletters@reedbusiness.com. Please include your full name and former title/company.

Sara Rutenberg has been named COO of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Her duties will include, among other things, conference coordinator, liason with author and illustrator organizations, general counsel , grant writing and administering awards.

Laurie Young, former creative director at Intervisual Books/Piggy Toes Press can be reached at booksigndesign@gmail.com.

Rolph Blythe, former marketing director at Graywolf Press, is going to pursue an MBA at Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. He can be reached at rolph.blythe@gmail.com.

You can find a full list of all those who have appeared in Comings and Goings here.

Blogs

MORE STORIES

The PW Morning Report
Bloomsbury Denies Potter Claims; Bezos Says Google Deal Needs Revisiting; University Presses Threatened; ‘Catcher’ Author Defends Book; Copycat Titles Sell Books. Read on »

AUTHORS ON THE AIR

Authors on the Air: Reaching the Animal Mind; Vin Scully, Unwrapped; Love is a Verb
Today, Good Morning America consulted no-punishment animal trainer Karen Pryor, author of Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals (Scribner, 978-0743297769, $25). Read on »

PICTURE OF THE DAY

A Presidential Bark in Dayton
After a reading from J. Patrick Lewis and Tim Bowers, author and illustrator of First Dog! (Sleeping Bear Press), at books&co in Dayton, Oh., two fans cozied up to each other, one a dead ringer for the First pup himself, Bo. Submit your pictures here »

JOB OF THE DAY

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