Another Colin Makes a Move, This Time to The New Press
So m uch for that leisurely vacation and catching up on Marshall Berman. Colin Robinson, the ex-Verso chief who left that company last month, has joined the New Press as its publisher. In conjunction with the hire, Diane Wachtell becomes executive director. Andre Schiffrin will remain the house's director.
The addition of Robinson is meant to deliver a younger, jazzier element to the New Press, which sometimes suffers from the perception that it's not young and jazzy. While Robinson hasn't spoken explicitly to his writers about joining him here, he says, "They will choose where they want to work." Robinson also will bring his marketing savvy to the house.
Robinson left Verso last month after a dispute with the London-based company's board of directors, who wanted him to return to the U.K. and thought he should take the press in a more academic direction. "It's a fantastic institution and I wouldn't underestimate the people who are still there," he says." But I had a hope that I could make it big enough and influential enough to have an impact in the industry as a whole. Obviously I have some doubt now about whether Verso can do that."
Wachtell says the New Press has been courting Robinson for about a year. "We've been plying him with offers," she says. "It's not like we swooped in last month." Robinson and his retail dexterity couldn't come at a more welcome time, though, as the philanthropy sector on which the house relies for much of its support faces its most troubling period in years.
How the addition of a new player atop the New Press heap will affect others' roles at the house is unclear, but Wachtell dismisses the idea of a logjam. "The New Press has never been about [company] titles," she says. "I don't want to call them arbitrary but I wouldn't read too much into them." If a generalization could be made, it is that Robinson will apply his skills toward acquisition and marketing, Wachtell will concentrate first on fundraising and Schiffrin will serve as "all-around guru," as Wachtell puts it.
Schiffrin, known for his gloomy take on for-profit publishing, launched his press more than a decade ago as a non-profit that relies heavily on grants. He's been impressively adept at raising money as well as tapping the education market, but his trade sales haven't always measured up to, say, a Verso or a Seven Stories.
Robinson thinks his experience will match up well against the challenges he'll face at the New Press. "I've spent the last fifteen years marketing Marx," he says. "Selling Studs Terkel should be a breeze."-Steven Zeitchik