Moldow Retires, Touchstone Closes

Susan Moldow is retiring from her position as presi­dent of Scribner Publish­ing Group and president of the Touchstone imprint at Simon & Schuster at the end of the year. Moldow has worked in publishing since 1966, and has held senior positions at Dell, Penguin, Doubleday, and HarperCollins, as well as Simon & Schuster, and her authors included Anthony Doerr, Charles Johnson, Stephen King, and Colm Tóibín, among many others.

In the wake of her retirement, the Touchstone imprint (which publishes a handful of genre titles each year) will also close at year’s end, with forthcoming titles reassigned to the Atria and Gallery imprints. Adult publishing president Jonathan Karp says, “Touchstone’s front list frequently overlaps with other adult publish­ers, particularly Atria and Gallery books, and I believe going forward we will be best serviced by integrating Touchstone’s talented staff within these imprints.” Executive editors Matthew Ben­jamin and Trish Todd and associate editor Kaitlin Olson will move to Atria, as will Shida Carr (di­rector of publicity) and Isabel DaSilva (marketing coordinator). Executive editor Lauren Speigal, senior editor Cara Bedick, and assistant editor Rebecca Strobel are going to Gallery, with Jessica Roth (assistant director of publicity) and Sydney Morris (associate publicist). Director of publicity Brian Belfiglio, who works for Touchstone and Scribner, will focus entirely on the latter, and as­sistant director of marketing Kelsey Manning will move to Scribner. Associate publisher Meredith Vilarello will oversee the Touchstone backlist. Senior art director Cherlynne Li’s position has been eliminated.

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