From Publishers Weekly, by Jim Milliot
Executives at Lakeside Book Company, one of the country’s largest book printers, had been monitoring the shrinking pool of distribution options for publishers for several years when the opportunity to acquire Baker & Taylor Publishing Services, the distribution arm of the now-defunct library wholesaler Baker & Taylor, arose last November. Lakeside pounced, adding newfound distribution capabilities to its other manufacturing services.
Now, a little more than a year after acquiring BTPS, now known internally as Lakeside Book Distribution, the company has taken another step to upgrade its distribution business.
Lakeside has just completed a reorganization that merges sales resources from Dover Publications, a publisher that Lakeside has long owned, with reps who had worked at BTPS, along with some other changes. The goal is to form a group that sells Dover titles as well as titles from Lakeside’s distribution clients, explains distribution veteran Todd McGarity, who joined Lakeside in January in the newly created role of SVP of business development for Lakeside’s Book Services division.
The new Lakeside Book sales team is led by Jeff Tegge, VP of client services, and Mark Hillesheim, sales director. Reporting to Hillesheim are channel managers Michael Riley (national accounts), Deanna Meyeroff (trade sales), Lorina Lana (special markets) and Randy McKenzie (Christian sales).
With this change, two Dover sales reps will move over to the Lakeside Book sales team, and Dover’s Judy Kessler will represent Lakeside Book clients in the mass merch channel. McGarity said the Lakeside sales team now numbers 11, along with the commission rep groups Imprint Group West, Fujii Associates, and Como Sales, plus commission groups selling into the gift and Christian markets.
No changes at this point have been made to Lakeside’s Canadian distribution operations.
The BTPS acquisition brought Lakeside approximately 150 distribution clients, and McGarity tells PW that the company has signed about 12 new publishers in recent months, adding that Lakeside is “aggressively trying to add new distribution clients with a focus on small and medium publishers.”
In looking to sign new clients, the Lakeside sales team can point to the advantages of being part of a company that offers offset, digital, and POD printing. Six of Lakeside Book Distribution’s new clients are taking advantage of those services, according to McGarity.
“This sales reorganization is just the beginning of a transformative phase of growth that’s in the works at Lakeside Book,” McGarity says. “And it comes at a time where publishers are seeking distribution alternatives to what’s out there.”
This article was originally published in Publishers Weekly on August 18, 2026. Read the original story here.