Lowe to leave The Bookseller

Emma Lowe is to leave The Bookseller after a restructure of the sales and marketing departments at parent company The Stage Media Co. She leaves following a redundancy consultation.

Lowe, who joined The Bookseller in 2014, had a dual role at the business: she was director of publisher relations at The Bookseller and director of business relations at The Stage, running the sales teams across both titles, as well as managing The Bookseller’s events such as The British Book Awards. The Stage Media Co bought The Bookseller in 2020.

Following the consultation, The Stage Media Co’s marketing director Rachel Foley Scott has been named sales and marketing director at the business. The Stage Media Co. managing director Hugh Comerford explained that he had wanted a reorganisation that brought the sales and market teams under one management. The new structure means that all commercial activity across both titles, The Bookseller and The Stage, will now take place in one department. He thanked Lowe for “an amazing three years”.

Lowe led the growth in advertising spend across The Bookseller, the Daily editions at the Frankfurt, Bologna and London Book Fairs, and the hugely impactful biannual Buyers Guides. She also spearheaded The Bookseller’s events business including the Nibbies, FutureBook and the Marketing & Publicity Conference, helping to pivot to online events during the pandemic before bringing them successfully back in-person from 2022 onwards. She also took the lead in securing sponsorship sales on the Stage’s Debut awards, when it re-established itself as a physical event last year.

Lowe commented: “I’m very sorry to be leaving a job I’ve loved. I fully intend to continue working in the books and wider arts sector. My thanks go to the teams at both The Bookseller and The Stage as well as the Comerford family for making this such a rewarding and stimulating period in my professional life. I am particularly indebted to The Bookseller’s past owner Nigel Roby in bringing me in almost a decade ago, and also to Philip Jones for being the kindest and most brilliant colleague I could have hoped for. I’m extremely proud of what everyone on team Bookseller has achieved together over the last nine years – they are an inspirational group of people and I wish them the very best in their next chapter.”

Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller, said: “Emma has played an unparalleled role in growing and repositioning The Bookseller over the past decade: her approach to events and selling placed the needs of the industry at the heart of everything we do, and this has paid off both in terms of the quality of our offering and the financial performance. I will not be alone in missing her spirit, sense of fun and commercial nous.”

Lowe joined The Bookseller in 2014 having previously worked for Reed Exhibitions on the London Book Fair. She leaves on 16th August. She can be contacted at emmarebeccalowe@gmail.com.