Doubleday Restructures Religion, Forms New Division

by Lynn Garrett, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 10/3/2007

Doubleday president and publisher Stephen Rubin announced this morning the formation of a new division of Doubleday Broadway, to be called The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group. The division combines the New York-based Doubleday Religious program with Colorado Springs-based WaterBrook Multnomah. President and publisher of the new division will be Steve Cobb, who has been president of WaterBrook Multnomah. With the elimination of his position, Bill Barry, publisher of Doubleday Religious, is leaving the company.

Citing the religion category as "an area of double-digit growth within our industry," in a statement Rubin said the consolidation would "unite…the successful—and complementary—publishing programs," and that "together they will form the first division in our industry to encompass works from the full array of Judeo-Christian traditions as well as from other major religions." Doubleday Religious has long been known for its emphasis on Roman Catholicism and on academic publishing, while WaterBrook Multnomah publishes books for the evangelical Christian market. "Under a shared leadership and with a unified strategic vision, this new entity will offer authors an even more comprehensive array of publishing options, enhanced resources, and additional distribution channels," Rubin said. He also said the imprints would "maintain…editorial autonomy and distinct identities."

This move follows the sale by Doubleday Religious of the Anchor Bible Series of commentaries and reference works to Yale University Press (Daily, Sept. 25). Asked whether this signaled that the new division was abandoning academic publishing, David Drake, v-p and executive director of publicity, told PW, "We will not rule out publishing individual books that are sufficiently scholarly to appeal to the academic market, but our focus going forward is on publishing general interest religious titles for the trade."

With the restructuring, Kevin Tobin, v-p of business operations for Doubleday Broadway, will assume additional responsibilities as the director of Doubleday Religion, a new position, working with Cobb on list development, strategic planning and cross-marketing. Tobin and Cobb will continue to report to Michael Palgon, executive v-p and deputy publisher of Doubleday Broadway. Newly reporting to Tobin will be Trace Murphy, Doubleday Religion editor-in-chief, and Andrew Corbin, senior editor. Doubleday Religion editorial, marketing and publicity will remain in New York. Cobb and the WaterBrook Multnomah staff will remain in Colorado Springs.