B&NE Retail Segment Took Big Hit in Q1 (publishersweekly.com)

The U.S. Postal Service made several leadership announcements, including the retirement of a top executive, the promotion of several other key leaders, and a series of functional alignments that aim to better position the organization to achieve operational excellence and financial stability. The changes include the announcement that David E. Williams, chief logistics and processing operations officer, intends to retire next year, capping a postal career that has spanned more than three decades. Other leadership appointments and structural modifications announced today include: *Isaac Cronkhite, who currently serves as chief human resources officer, will succeed Williams as chief logistics and processing operations officer. *Doug Tulino, labor relations vice president, will become chief human resources officer. *Katherine Attridge, collective bargaining and arbitration manager, will become labor relations vice president. *Tom Foti, product management executive director, will become product solutions vice president and report to Steve Monteith, who will become chief customer and marketing officer. *Marc McCrery, information technology vice president, will become technology applications vice president, and Bill Koetz, will serve as acting network and compute technology vice president. *Gary Reblin, product innovation vice president, will become innovative business technology vice president and report to Scott Bombaugh, who will become chief technology officer. *Linda Malone has been named engineering systems vice president after serving in the position in an acting basis since the summer. She will report to Bombaugh. *Simon Storey, employee resource management vice president, will become human resources vice president, and Jenny Utterback, human resources technology and innovation senior director, will become organization development vice president. *Jeff Adams has been named corporate communications vice president, a role he has served in an acting basis since the summer.

REI Co-op is opening its first location in Maine, bringing quality outdoor gear and renowned expertise to the Greater Portland area in fall 2021. The approximately 24,400 square-foot store will be part of the new Rock Row development in Westbrook and will serve as a home base for the co-op's 47,000 lifetime members in Maine by inspiring and enabling a life outside for all. REI will offer top-quality gear for the activities that each season offers, ranging from paddling to cold weather gear. “A part of the New England community since we opened our first store in Massachusetts in 1987, we’re thrilled to expand our regional presence with our first store in Maine,” says Becky Smith, REI’s Northeast regional director. “We are especially excited to share a passion with the community for spending time outside year-round, from trekking through the snow to paddling along the coast.”

The 10-campus University of California system and 48 private and public academic and research institutions represented by the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) have reached a new open access agreement with Wiley, one of the world's largest publishers. The three-year deal begins this month and will make more research eligible for open access publication than any partnership of its kind in California. “Some of the most groundbreaking research in the world is done right here in California, driving advances in medicine, environmental sustainability and society. I am excited about this opportunity for more California scholars, from UC and beyond, to make their work freely available so that people around the globe can benefit from and build on their discoveries,” said Maria De Prano, professor of Art History at UC Merced and chair of the UC faculty Academic Senate’s systemwide committee on library and scholarly communication. “I appreciate the partnership of our colleagues at SCELC and Wiley for making open access to California research possible at this scale.”