Nelson-WND partnership to End; Warner's Blue-State Play

by Christopher Dreher and Sean Fowlds, PW NewsLine -- Publishers Weekly, 8/10/2004

It's all religion houses, all the time in publishing today. First comes word that Thomas Nelson and WND are ending their two-year-old license that produced Michael Savage bestsellers and a number of conservative and libertarian titles.

Nelson and WorldNetDaily won't continue their marketing and naming agreement after 2004. But Nelson will continue its book program, announcing a new name within the next few days. Meanwhile, the WorldNetDaily site will begin publishing its own books under the WND Books name after the contract expires. Nelson will continue to hold all rights to the backlist.

"We just didn't feel it brought that much value for what we had to pay," said WND Books publisher David Dunham, who said it was an amicable parting. "We're not going to break stride at all, the only thing that's going to change is the name."

The original agreement had Nelson paying WorldNetDaily to help acquire authors and promote books on the site. In return, WorldNetDaily editor and CEO Joseph Farah sits on the imprint's editorial board, and the imprint put out a number of books by WorldNetDaily columnists. The severance agreement stipulates that WorldNetDaily will continue to market the Thomas Nelson imprints' books on its site and that Thomas Nelson will continue to provide WorldNetDaily their books to sell on their site at a discount.

In more official financial news, Nelson announced that sales were up 17.2%, to $49 million for the first quarter ended June 30, based on Breaking the Da Vinci Code and Refuel, a full-text version of the New Testament published in a magazine format, as well as other bibles.

And speaking of fresh starts in religion, the Time Warner Book Group is launching a new imprint called Center Street, with an emphasis on self-help, motivation, health and fitness, fiction and regional interest.

The line will debut in January with a half-dozen titles, expanding to about a dozen titles for the fall season. Plans call for the titles to appear across all Time Warner channels of distribution, including religion specialty and general-market independent and chain stores, mass-market retailers and online outlets. It says the name is "meant to reflect the line's heartland values and sensibilities."

Center Street is the first new imprint for the Time Warner Book Group since its launch of Warner Faith in 2001. TWBG president and COO Maureen Egen said it's part of an effort to offer publishing about values that isn't necessarily religious. "We're convinced the market is receptive to a program based on wholesome lifestyle titles," she said. Center Street will be based in Nashville and share offices with Warner Faith. Rolf Zettersten, publisher of Warner Faith, also will serve as publisher for Center Street. Two editorial positions are being hired for the new imprint."