Short Takes

By Marcia Z. Nelson -- Publishers Weekly, 2/26/2009 9:31:00 AM

Layoffs at CBD; retailer relief program from Crossway; Westminster John Knox radio spotlights authors; mom, daughter team for YA suspense novel; happy birthday, Judson Press

Christian Book Distributors, the Peabody, Mass., distributor that includes the Web site christianbook.com and affiliate Hendrickson Publishers, announced earlier this month a 7% reduction in staff. Thirty-seven positions were eliminated, leaving 528 employees. Company officer Bridget Timmins told RBL that jobs were eliminated in various areas of the company, including four at Hendrickson. “What we needed to do was right size the company,” she said. CBD makes available more than 200,000 books, Bibles and other Christian products.

Crossway Books & Bibles is offering a “Retailer Recession Relief Program” for independent retailers and church bookstores. Program components include a 55% discount on backlist titles and a due date of May 15 for order payment. “This is the first announcement we’ve seen, and we commend Crossway for pioneering this kind of creative solution,” Bill Anderson, president and CEO of CBA, the Christian retailers association, told RBL in an e-mail. The program began earlier this month and runs through April 15.

It isn’t quite WKRP in Cincinnati, but Westminster John Knox Press, down the Ohio River from Cincinnati in Louisville, Ky., launched WJK Radio with Dan and Jana, a monthly podcast, on February 23. Hosts are WJK managing editor Dan Braden and acquisitions editor Jana Riess, former longtime PW religion reviews editor. The radio podcast is intended to showcase authors and topics of interest. WJK Radio’s first guest was Rufus Burrow, author of Martin Luther King Jr. for Armchair Theologians (WJK, May). A future guest is expected to be preacher and author Barbara Brown Taylor.

Bestselling evangelical Christian author Brandilyn Collins and her daughter Amberly are teaming up for The Rayne Tour, a series of young adult suspense novels. Opening with Always Watching (Zondervan, May), the series features Shaley O’Connor, 16-year-old daughter of a rock star touring with her mother’s band, Rayne. The series will debut with an online launch party.

Judson Press celebrates its 185th anniversary in 2009. The publishing arm of the American Baptist Churches USA was founded in 1824 as the Baptist General Tract Society. Judson Press authors will celebrate the anniversary with a group book signing at the American Baptist Biennial in Pasadena in June. Judson specialties include the African-American Christian market; Rev. Dr. Gardner C. Taylor is among the key authors.