New Direction for the Children’s Book Council

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on October 5, 2006 Sign up now!

by Diane Roback and Joy Bean, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 10/5/2006

In its annual meeting on September 28, the board of directors of the Children's Book Council addressed current challenges and introduced its new executive director, Robin Adelson.

Calling this "a critical moment in CBC's history," board president Simon Boughton reported on a study the board had commissioned to examine the CBC, and summarized two major challenges for the organization. The first was a decline in revenue, brought on by declining sales of materials (Boughton acknowledged that "we as publishers have undercut that market by providing those kinds of materials for free"). The second challenge was to "define the value" of the CBC, especially given that for larger publishers, CBC membership "costs quite a bit of money."

The company that undertook the study, Consensus Management, audited all CBC programs, and interviewed past and present staff as well as publishers. Boughton reported a "startling amount of consensus" among members as to what they thought should take place. First, he said, the CBC needs a sharper and more disciplined focus, adding that "there is a role for the CBC to be the visible spokesperson for the industry."

The organization's most high-profile program, Children's Book Week, got low grades in the study in terms of its effectiveness and visibility. "There is a lack of recognition in the media and in retail for this week-long initiative," Boughton reported. One idea is to appoint a publicist for Children's Book Week to raise its profile, and raise the profile of the CBC as a whole.

In essence, the study found, the CBC operates as a charitable foundation despite being constructed as a trade association. The consensus from members is that they want it first and foremost to be a trade association, with a mission of supporting its members' business. There was also a consensus that the CBC can be most effective by focusing on a small number of initiatives.

In other board news, a new slate of officers was nominated and approved: Lori Benton, Diana Blough, Simon Boughton, Nancy Feresten and Regina Griffin. These officers will serve through 2009. The term for serving on the board of directors has been extended to two years, from one. Boughton said they are considering changing the board's structure, possibly asking people from outside the industry to join the board, and having smaller steering committees meet more often.

In the treasurer's report, Suzanne Murphy reported a deficit of just over $250,000, "resulting from transition of staff and shortfall in materials." Raising revenue is high on the agenda, Boughton said, and in an effort to expand membership, the CBC board is also looking into asking retailers to join.

Boughton then introduced Robin Adelson, the CBC's new executive director. Adelson told the assembled publishers that her mandate is to revitalize the CBC. "I believe the CBC is ready for a change," she said, as she acknowledged the assocation's rich history and solid foundation. She expressed a goal for the CBC to "make itself more relevant and more savvy."

A high priority, Adelson said, would be to look at Children's Book Week, which currently has "no centralizing event or initiative," and see how its profile can be raised. She gave news that Karen Lotz of Candlewick has offered to donate a large number of children's books to literacy causes, for this year's Children's Book Week, and that Penguin and Roaring Brook will participate as well; other interested publishers were encouraged to contact her. She urged publishers to donate close to a million books for this year's Children's Book Week, and ultimately envisions Children's Book Week as "a huge children's book drive." In future, too, the dates for Children's Book Week may change, she said, and there may be a benefit gala for the occasion.

She also spoke about the CBC's charitable foundation: Every Child a Reader, and said there were plans underway to reorganize the foundation to allow for corporate sponsorships.

In conclusion, Adelson said she envisions a CBC that will engage its members and act on their behalf. "The CBC is your trade organization. Exciting things are happening at the CBC. Oh, the places we'll go!"

After Adelson's talk, author Charles Fishman spoke about his book, The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works (Penguin Press, Jan. 2006). He gave statistics about the retailer, including the fact that 60,000 items are for sale in any given Wal-Mart, and 120,000 items in Super Wal-Marts, and they sell 36 million dollars worth of merchandise an hour. He also told a story about how Levi Strauss started making a line of jeans for Wal-Mart a few years ago that would sell for around $12 or $13, in order to raise profits, which had dipped from seven billion to four billion.

While Fishman admitted that he didn't know much about children's book publishing or the book department in Wal-Mart, he did say that in all the time he spent in Wal-Mart stores, studying the store for his book, he never saw much foot traffic in that section. He said that for him, book-buying is a leisurely activity where you need a lot of space and time, and trips to Wal-Mart are usually just for getting the household items on your list and getting out.

The talk became especially relevant to the audience when Doug Whiteman, president and publisher of the Penguin Young Readers Group, told the crowd that he had been approached by Wal-Mart and invited to their offices. The company told him that Target was crushing Wal-Mart in children's book sales and they wanted to do something about that. While Fishman couldn't give Whiteman any specific advice about selling children's books into Wal-Mart, he did tell a few stories of how other companies ended up being controlled by Wal-Mart, once their products started appearing on Wal-Mart's shelves. His cautionary advice to Whiteman, and to children's book publishers: be careful of who you get into bed with, especially when it's a giant like Wal-Mart.