Pearson has laid off 19 employees, part of the publishing company’s ongoing shift.

When asked about the cuts, the company offered this statement:

Pearson’s businesses continue to shift from traditional print models to digital products and services. As our business needs have shifted, we’ve had to make difficult but necessary decisions about staffing. This week, we notified 19 employees that their positions will be ending with Pearson in the next month.  Thirteen of these employees are based in Upper Saddle River. We know that this is a challenging situation and we’ll be doing all that we can to support them through this transition.

New York Times senior staff editor John Williams will write a new column for the paper’s Book Review called “Open Book,” providing “a window onto the literary landscape.”

You can also follow Williams on Twitter.

This column will replace the weekly “Up Front” column, but the magazine will include occasional pieces about the magazine’s writers and online material.

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Cary Goldstein has been named the executive director of publicity and senior editor at the Simon & Schuster imprint.

Previously, Goldstein had served as publisher of Grand Central Publishing’s Twelve imprint. In his new post, he will manage the operations of the publicity department and oversee the acquisitions of fiction and nonfiction projects.

A number of other publishing houses also announced new hires and promotions this week…

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Jason Rekulak has been promoted to publisher of Quirk Books. In addition, Brett Cohen has been promoted to president at Quirk Books and David Borgenicht will take the role of Quirk Productions CEO.

Rekulak acquired and edited many of the house’s bestsellers including the mash-up title Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the young adult novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

A number of other publishing organizations have also announced promotions this week…

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Penguin International president Andrew Phillips has been named the next CEO of Author Solutions, the self-publishing business purchased by Penguin.

He will start in July. Current CEO Kevin Weiss “will leave to take up a new position which will be announced separately next week.”

A number of publishing promotions were also announced this week…

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Former Federated Media CEO Deanna Brown has been named the new president at Byliner. The company collects short stories and articles online, and also publishes digital shorts.

Here’s more from the release:

As CEO of Federated Media, she doubled the company’s revenues and was responsible for building a network that reached 180 million unique visitors a month—outranking Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft. Prior to Federated, Brown was President of Scripps Networks Interactive, and held Vice President and General Manager titles at Yahoo and AOL. She was CEO and cofounder of Powerful Media/Inside.com, which was acquired by Primedia, and CEO and founder of Gaming Industry News, which was acquired by Ziff Davis. In 1995, Brown cofounded CondéNet, the digital division of publisher Condé Nast.

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GalleyCat has learned that Granta will close its office in New York City.

We have also heard that deputy editor Ellah Allfrey and art director Michael Salu have both resigned. Associate editor Patrick Ryan will also be leaving.

We’ve reached out to the literary journal for commentary, and we will update with any response. Editor John Freeman also left the magazine last month.

Literary agent Julie Just will head to Pippin Properties on May 1st.

Just (pictured) is looking for clients who write strong and distinctive young-adult and middle-grade fiction. She also has an interest in narrative nonfiction for adults and children.

In other revolving door news this week, three members of the editorial team at Simon & Schuster have been promoted…

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Angela Bole will serve as the new executive director of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA).

Bole currently works as the deputy executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, and she will replace Florrie Binford Kichler who retires as IBPA executive director in June.  Here’s more about the new director, from the release:

Bole has been Deputy Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG) since March 2009, having previously served two years as Associate Director and two years as Marketing and Communications Manager. Angela has English Literature and Gender Studies degrees from Indiana University Bloomington and a Masters Degree in Book Publishing from New York University. She is an active member of the Women’s Media Group, a New York-based nonprofit association of women who have achieved prominence in the many fields of media. She also serves as Treasurer on the International Digital Publishing Forum’s (IDPF’s) Board of Directors.

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Oxford English Dictionary chief editor John Simpson has decided to retire in October 2013.

Simpson has been a member of the editorial staff at the celebrated dictionary since 1976. He assumed the chief editor post in 1993, only the seventh editor to hold that prestigious post since 1879. During his time at the post, a staggering 60,000 new words and meanings have been added to the dictionary.

Editorial project director Michael Proffitt will assume the chief editor post in November.  Principal etymologist Philip Durkin will serve as deputy chief editor alongside current deputy chief editor Edmund Weiner.

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