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Parragon Publishing has restructured into two divisions in order to "grow business in traditional and non-traditional book markets."
The Bath-based illustrated publisher which specialises in cookbooks, adult non-fiction, cookbooks and licensed characters has split into two divisions; Parragon Publishing and Parragon International.
Parragon Publishing will concentrate on Parragon's core publishing operations in the UK, North America, and Australasia, headed by Paul Gregory, who is currently global publishing director.
Meanwhile Parragon International will focus on “areas of our business we want to significantly expand over the next few years”, which include non-English language publishing through distributors and co-edition partners; the gift market; and global marketing.
The priority for the new group will be “growth in traditional and non-traditional book markets with focus on strategic alignment across global publishing” according to a memo sent out by Paul Taylor, c.e.o of Parragon’s parent company DC Thomson Consumer Products, and seen by Publishers Weekly.
The publisher has also indicated it is looking for acquisitions outside of the traditional book space “in order to gain access to new products and distribution channels.”
April Sankey, the former operations director and publisher at Roto Vision SA, a division of the Quarto Group Inc, will succeed Gregory in the role of global publishing director.
Meanwhile Risa Beckett, current v-p sales, Parragon North America, has been promoted to executive VP, Parragon North America. Wendy Friedman, currently president of Parragon North America/Latin America, has been promoted to president and c.o.o. of Parragon International. In this role, Friedman will oversee Parragon’s Latin American, European (excluding German language) and Asia (co-edition) teams, as well as the U.K. gift business. A new US gift unit is being created that will also report to her. Brooke Lindner, previously sales and product development director of Kids Books/ Soft Play, will be joining Parragon International as director of product development.
According to UK Nielsen BookScan data, Parragon Books saw a 7.5% drop in revenue by value for the first half of the year up to week ending 14th June. The company took £3.5m in the first half of 2014, down from £3.8m for the same period in 2013.