The University of New Mexico Press has named John W. Byram director. Byram, who was editor-inchief and director of development at University Press Florida, started his career at Norton where he worked as a sales rep. He then transitioned into marketing before moving into editorial, in 1998, when he began to focus on academic science titles.
Speaking to Byram's background, Dr. Wynn Goering, the university's vice provost for academic affairs, said the school is excited about his experience in both commercial and university publishing.
Of late, UNM Press has faced its fair share of struggles. In April 2009, suffering from declining sales it blamed on the sinking economy, it laid off two employees and announced it would be closing its warehouse and fulfillment operations. (The warehouse closure would have resulted in the elimination of another nine positions.) The warehouse, however, stayed open. After the university looked at the potential cost savings involved in outsourcing distribution, and the production difficulties it would cause for both the press its publisher-clients, it annouced in fall 2009 that it would keep the warehouse running.
Those cutbacks happened under UNM director Luther Wilson, who is retiring on June 30. Wilson ran the press from 1980 to 1985 and then, again, since 2000. Byram will start at UNM on August 16, and Richard Schuetz, associate director for business operations, will run the press in the iterim. The press has 25 full-time employees.
