At various times during the Christmas break I've been catching up on back issues of Publishers Weekly which is edited by the often controversial Sara Nelson. The magazine has improved significantly over the years and its banner now claims that it is 'The international voice for book publishing and bookselling'. It is definitely more international than before but some of the differences between US and British culture are still apparent.

It was great to see in December 11 issue that Jane Friedman was chosen as 'Publishing person of the year'. Given her excellent track record and her high standing in the industry this seems completely appropriate. PW covered the award well and I wasn't suprised to see that their excellent ad sales team had managed to 'persuade' a significant number of HarperCollins suppliers to take out sensibly congratulatory ads. I spotted Verso Advertising, Arvato, Command Web Offset, Quebecor, and Bowater all of whom deserve this further plug for their companies.

Unfortunately the ads don't appear in the online version and so I cannot show you the full page ad on page 5 which knocked me sideways and got me thinking of the differences between the USA and Britain rather than the similarities. You'll have to imagine the typography - here are the words.

Congratulations

Jane Friedman

Our Leader

Our Friend

Our Inspiration

From all of us at HarperCollinsPublishers

I wonder, did the cost of the ad come out of the corporate PR budget or was there a whipround all staff to raise the cash? In the words of the great Dorothy Parker, 'Pass the sickbag, Alice.'