HarperCollins Creates Digital Editor Post To Oversee E-Books

HarperCollins has been trying to sense the movement toward eBooks for sometime and has been one of the most aggressive publishers in its approach to digital.

So it’s not that surprising to see Crain’s NY Business report that HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corp. ( NWS - news - people ), has become one of the first major publishers to create an “editor in chief” role for digital.

Margot Schupf will move from her current post as an associate publisher at HarperCollins to the new role of editorial director, digital publishing, for the Morrow/Avon/Eos group.

The unit encompasses Morrow’s hardcover fiction and nonfiction, Avon romance paperbacks and the science fiction under Eos.

Schupf says she’s coming at the job from a content perspective, as opposed to a marketing and distribution one, and will work with those imprints to publish original eBooks, in addition to poring over the company’s backlist titles.

While she’ll be concentrating on the editorial aspects of eBooks, she’ll also be be expected to help managing digital marketing projects and come up with iPhone apps and other tools.

The closest counterpart Schupf has at another publishing house, according to Crains, is Mark Gompertz, at Simon&Schuster. The veteran Touchstone Fireside division publisher was recently named executive vice president of digital publishing, a role that involves serving as a liaison between the traditional print side and the digital side.

If Schupf makes her mark at the Morrow/Avon/Eos group, HarperCollins might set up a similar editor post for the publisher’s main division.