A new company led by James Connolly, head of Bay Books & Tapes for the last five years, and Bill Schwartz, founder of Hi-Tech Public Relations, has acquired the assets of the San Francisco publisher. The new house, Bay/Soma Publishing, will continue to operate from the offices of the old Bay Books in San Francisco. Connolly is president and publisher of Bay/Soma and Schwartz is CEO. The deal involved approximately 100 titles.
Schwartz told PW that initially there will probably be a slight reduction from the 15 titles the company has released annually. "We want to fix the infrastructure and upgrade internal systems" before growing the list, Schwartz said. The focus of Bay's publishing program will continue to be producing companion books in association with the public television station KQED, particularly in the cookbook, gardening and interior design areas. Schwartz said that he plans to expand the companion publishing program with other PBS stations, commercial stations and other media outlets. Publishers Group West will continue to distribute Bay's books to bookstores, while a commissioned group will sell its titles to gift stores.
