In his most comprehensive restructuring move to date as he moves to forge a new English-language management structure at Hachette, Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK CEO David Shelley has announced a series of promotions and structural changes in both the U.S. and U.K.
The most prominent move at HBG is the promotion of Ben Sevier, most recently executive v-p and publisher of Grand Central Publishing, to president and publisher of GCP. In addition to continuing to oversee Grand Central and its imprints, Sevier is now also responsible for Hachette Nashville and its imprints FaithWords, Center Street, and Worthy, led by Daisy Hutton, as well as Hachette Books and its imprint, Hachette Go, led by Mary Ann Naples.
Sevier joined HBG in 2017 and, according to the announcement, “has led a period of profit growth and list expansion for Grand Central Publishing.” Bestsellers that have been released under his leadership include books by David Baldacci, Harlan Coben, Sally Field, Colleen Hoover, Abby Jimenez, and Min Jin Lee. He will continue to report to Shelley.
In prepared remarks about Sevier’s promotion, Shelley pointed to the latter’s ability to expand GCP’s catalog while also growing the audience of readers “significantly.” Shelley also highlighted Sevier’s development of the Balance and Legacy Lit imprints, as well as growing the Forever imprint’s romance publishing program.
In a second move with a direct impact on HBG, Shelley is combining the leadership of the U.S. and U.K. distribution business under Matt Wright, who is currently CEO of Hachette UK Distribution. As CEO of HUK and HBG Distribution, Wright will be responsible, as the title implies, for clients in both the U.S. and the U.K. Publisher clients in the U.S. include Abrams, Chronicle, and Yen Press, while Hachette also handles distribution in the both regions for Lonely Planet and Quarto. Frank Casolaro, v-p of HBG Distribution, will now report to Wright. Shelley said that he expects Wright to use his experience in the U.K. to “help support and enable the U.S. team to offer outstanding distribution and to grow the services we offer to our valued portfolio of client publishers.”
No new changes are coming to HBG U.S.’s Little, Brown group. Earlier this year, Sally Kim moved from G.P. Putnam’s Sons to HBG as president and publisher of Little, Brown and Company, succeeding Bruce Nichols, and Megan Tingley remains president and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. And in a previous move that expanded an American executive’s responsibility to the U.K., Carrie Bloxson was appointed senior v-p, culture and diversity, equity, and inclusion for both the U.S. and U.K. businesses. All three report to Shelley.
Extensive U.K. Changes
Prior to being tapped to head both HBG and HUK last year, Shelley had solely led the latter, which he has restructured to give more responsibility to three executives. Hachette UK is now organized into three core areas: adult trade, children’s trade, and education. The groups will be headed up by three CEOs: Katie Espiner, Seshni Jacobs, and Hilary Murray Hill, and all three will report to Shelley. In her newly-created role of adult trade CEO, Espiner will be responsible for all nine divisions.
In making the U.K. promotions, Shelley pointed to a record-breaking year in 2023 in the U.K, adding that he believes the new structure “will help us reach evermore readers for our authors and creative partners’ works.”
In a final promotion, Charlie King has been named CEO of the U.K. Little, Brown Book Group, as well as CEO of the HUK International divisions. In his new role, King will expand his responsibilities beyond managing director of Little, Brown to lead Hachette Australia, Hachette India, Hachette Ireland, Hachette New Zealand, and Laurence King Verlag. In his international role, King succeeds, and will report to, Hachette UK and Hachette Book Group deputy CEO Richard Kitson, who has led all of Hachette UK’s international businesses since 2010. With this change, Kitson becomes chair of HUK International Divisions while continuing to lead the central departments—which include such functions as production—in the U.K. and U.S.
In a prepared statement, Shelley expressed confidence that the changes will create better coordination among Hachette’s English-language businesses. “With these promotions, I believe we will be able to harness the fantastic talent across both Hachette Book Group US and Hachette UK and help make it easy for evermore readers to discover the books we publish on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.
A version of this article appeared in the 05/13/2024 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: