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Tom Bromley, head of the Portico imprint at Anova, has left the company after taking voluntary redundancy following news that the division's annual list has been cut back from 30 to 20.
Helen Barnes, publicity manager, has also been made redundant, although she will continue to work at the firm until after Christmas.
Polly Powell, chief executive of Anova, said the departures, which were "very sad on a personal level" had come about following an internal review of the group's output for next year.
She said: "We are primarily an illustrated non fiction publisher, and Portico is our quite risky range of titles. Given the economy, we are reducing the number of titles at Portico and concentrating on what we do best. Tom sadly decided, with a much narrower brief, that it was not for him."
Bromley's last day was Friday (5th December), Powell said. Barnes was made redundant owing to the reduction in the number of books "requiring a lot of publicity".
Malcolm Croft, commissioning editor at the Portico, will take on Bromley's responsibilities and report to Katie Cowan, publisher of Collins & Brown. Mathew Jones, Portico's editorial assistant, will also remain at the company.
Powell said no other redundancies had been made at Anova, and the rest of the group's output would remain untouched. She added overall Anova was "better placed" than other publishers to weather the economic storm, given its specialist nature. She added: "Obviously the climate next year is looking grim, but because of the nature of our publishing, we are possibly better placed than a lot of others."