Picador’s Paul Baggaley to join Bloomsbury as editor-in-chief

Paul Baggaley is to join Bloomsbury as editor-in-chief for its adult consumer publishing. Baggaley will become Bloomsbury’s third editor-in-chief, following in the footsteps of Liz Calder and Alexandra Pringle.

Pringle herself will become executive publisher and remains “pivotal to Bloomsbury’s publishing and her own authors”, the publisher said.

Bloomsbury founder and chief executive Nigel Newton said: “Paul’s appointment signifies our intent and ambition for our adult publishing which has always been at the core of Bloomsbury’s success and what Bloomsbury stands for. This appointment makes Paul core to the strategy for future growth of our fiction, non-fiction and cookery lists. We are delighted to welcome him to Bloomsbury.”

Emma Hopkin, m.d. of Bloomsbury’s Consumer Publishing, added: “We have watched and hugely admired Paul’s leadership of Picador for the past decade and we look forward to bringing his talents to Bloomsbury to influence and guide our future adult publishing. We could not be more pleased to welcome him here to lead our brilliant editorial team and to work with our wonderful authors and chefs.”

Baggaley commented: “It has been a privilege to work with the Pan Macmillan team to develop Picador and I’m hugely proud of what the editorial team has achieved in publishing great voices with commercial success and critical acclaim. I am extremely grateful to Anthony Forbes Watson for giving me this opportunity and to Jeremy Trevathan for his support. There are very few roles that could have tempted me, but Nigel Newton and Emma Hopkin’s vision for the future of Bloomsbury was compelling.

"It is a real honour to follow in the footsteps of my two predecessors in this role, two of the most brilliant, indeed legendary publishers of recent times and I particularly relish the chance to work with Alexandra in my new role. I am also looking forward to working with and continuing to develop one of the most dynamic editorial teams around, and one whose publishing I have long admired.”

Baggaley will start at Bloomsbury in early 2020, reporting to Emma Hopkin.