Jane's Gone

Jane Friedman, CEO of Harpercollins is leaving her post after an impressive 10 year run at Harpercollins. She joined the company from Random House having been lured to Harpercollins by Rupert Murdoch himself. Harpercollins had been struggling under Murdoch up until that point but Friedman invigorated the business and ultimately produced a strong profitable publishing company.

Brian Murray has been named as her replacement and he has been key to executing their current long term strategy to transform the business from print to electronic distribution. From the press release:

"We are enormously grateful for her contributions over the past 10 years and understand her desire to seek new challenges at this point in her career," Murdoch said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

Murray, 41, has been president of HarperCollins since July 2007. He joined the publisher 10 years earlier and held several positions in the General Books Group until 2001, when he was named CEO of HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand. Murray returned to HarperCollins in the U.S. as group president in 2004 before his promotion to president. "In his 11-year tenure, Brian has demonstrated an impressive track record of growing publishing companies," Murdoch said. HarperCollins said he has led the publisher's digital efforts, including the development of its direct-to-consumer marketing.