Simon & Schuster yesterday said that Carolyn Reidy at year-end will replace Jack Romanos as CEO of the nation’s fourth-largest consumer book publisher.
Romanos, who’s stepping down after 40 years at the company, including the last five in the top job, has had to deal with temperamental bosses, corporate upheavals, a sell-off of its textbook operations and rumors of a potential sale of its consumer publishing business, not to mention a tough U.S. book-publishing market over the past few years.
“Our financial results year to date have been eye popping in comparison to prior years,” said Romanos, 64. He said he expects the company to have its fifth consecutive record-breaking year in 2007.
“I feel I accomplished what I set out to do here.”
Part of the current boom has been fueled by Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret,” which has spent 33 weeks on bestseller lists, Walter Isaacson’s “Einstein: His Life and Universe,” and by the children’s book “Dog” by Matthew Van Fleet and Brian Stanton.
For Reidy, an executive at a rival publisher said her challenge will be going from publisher to CEO.
However, Reidy insisted that a lot of her transformation began 10 years ago when Simon & Schuster acquired Scribner and Free Press from Macmillan and she was placed in charge of the adult publishing of the combined company.
“There are no radical changes on the horizon,” said Reidy, who will be overseeing divisions such as children’s books and audio sales for the first time. “I’ll have a lot of looking and learning to do and then I’ll see how I shape the company.”