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Simon & Schuster UK has restructured its management team, giving new responsibilities to Suzanne Baboneau and Kerr MacRae, and bringing in Penguin's Russell Evans to a newly created role.
S&S said the changes were to better meet the demands of an industry which faces "unprecedented challenges in the areas of digitisation, increased competition and changing markets".
Baboneau, publishing director for the adult trade division, has gained responsibility for the illustrated and sport lists, while executive director Kerr MacRae has acquired additional responsibilities for publishing strategy and brand development.
Evans, former head of inventory, sales operations and special sales and marketing production at Penguin, joins in May in the newly created role of commercial director. He will have full responsibility for production, publishing operations, warehousing and physical distribution, rights, digital publishing and office management and IT systems in the UK, Australia and India, liaising with the US.
Ian Chapman, S&S UK chief executive, said: "I am very excited about this new management structure, which I am confident positions us for profitability and growth in an extremely competitive market. With our team in these new roles I know that we can publish both more and more profitable bestsellers across the entire spectrum of the marketplace, and in all our territories, and that Simon & Schuster UK will continue to be a publishing house of excellence and a destination of choice for our employees, authors, clients, and readers."
Of Evans, Chapman said: "His appointment in this pivotal role is a coup for us, and I am delighted that he will be joining Simon & Schuster UK, where his experience and abilities will hold our business operations in good stead at a time when the publishing industry faces unprecedented challenges in the areas of digitisation, increased competition and changing markets."
MacRae's responsibility for publishing strategy and brand development in conjunction with overseeing the publicity and marketing departments means the company will have "a value chain in which the entire sell-in to sell-through process resides under one management." Chapman said: "This streamlined approach to sales and marketing will tap Kerr's great experience and abilities as we tackle the many new ways of reaching consumers and selling that have come to the fore in the digital era, while at the same time maintaining excellence in the traditional methods that still provide the great majority of our revenues."
Chapman described Baboneau as having an "impeccable track record as a publisher and as an editor" and said bringing the sports and illustrated departments under her direction would mean S&S would "continue to outflank our competition and build upon our considerable accomplishments in these areas."
Ami Richards and Ian Marshall, previous leaders of sport and illustrated, will report to Baboneau.