Latest News Roundup
-- Publishers Weekly, 5/22/2009 2:44:00 PM
Smaller BEA, RBTE Opening for Business
By Marcia Z. Nelson
This week’s two big trade shows will, unsurprisingly, be leaner for religion publishers. At Book Expo America at the Jacob Javits Center in New York Friday through Sunday, the emphasis is on quality over quantity, show director Lance Fensterman said in his blog. Within religion, some publishers will be absent or smaller. Westminster John Knox, the Presbyterian denominational publisher, won’t be there after years of attendance. Editorial director David Dobson said its top fall trade authors weren’t available for the BEA dates. “In the future, if we have the right combination of book and author, we'll certainly consider attending again,” Dobson told PW in an e-mail. Baker Publishing Group will have a smaller presence within the African-American Pavilion, promoting relevant titles. Baker will be smaller at all industry trade shows this year “in order to save operating expenses in a tight economy,” David Lewis, executive v-p, sales and marketing, told PW in an e-mail. Barbour v-p of publishing Mary A. Burns said BEA was one of several shows cut from this year’s budget.
At the Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit, the annual show for liturgical-market publishers, which opened yesterday in St. Charles, Ill., show co-manager Bob Byrns said vendor registration was down around 10%, to 130-plus vendors, and that some exhibitors were taking smaller spaces. He said retailer registrations did not appear to have decreased significantly. “I thought it would be worse,” he said, noting that the show usually gets on-site walk-ins. Publisher no-shows at RBTE include major Catholic publisher Loyola Press, which didn’t want to comment for the record.
Other Recent Developments in Religion Publishing
Christianity Today International, the family of periodicals that includes the flagship magazine Christianity Today and a number of Web sites, is cutting 30 staff members effective May 22. Four publications will also be shut down in coming months: Today’s Christian Woman, the newsletter Church Office Today, the Campus Life College Guide and the Christian history bulletin insert Glimpses. “What we’re experiencing is what everyone in the industry is experiencing,” said president and publisher Harold Smith. While ad revenues are down for print publications, he said the downturn in Web advertising was surprising. “These are understandable challenges in the wake of a new paradigm,” he told PW. CT was founded by Billy Graham in 1965.
Net sales were down 10.75% for Christian retailers in 2008, according to CBA, the trade association for Christian retailers. CBA also reported in its annual State of the Industry analysis released earlier this month, that 61% of stores surveyed had sales declines. Yet almost 7% registered sales increases of more than 20%. The overall Christian retail channel decreased by 37 stores, as 54 new stores opened while at least 91 closed. The anonymous survey included more than 276 stores from 43 states; independents, regional chains and national chains with sales volumes ranging from small to large participated.
Church Publishing, the publishing arm of the U.S. Episcopal Church, says it is “suspending” acquisitions of new trade books because of the current trade market decline. CPI will scale back activity at its trade imprint Seabury Books and implement a 30% staff reduction. Spokesperson Nancy Fisher had no details on the reductions. She also said that books currently under contract would be produced, and that backlist titles would continue to be supported and promoted; more books have been made available for Amazon’s Kindle reader. Imprints Morehouse and Church Publishing will concentrate on producing material and supplies for worship and church life, including e-products. CPI plans to roll out seven new e-products for churches this year. Production will be centralized under Lorraine Simonello, new v-p for production. Editorial acquisitions will continue under CPI editorial director Frank Tedeschi and publisher Davis Perkins.
Byron Williamson has formed Worthy Media, a privately funded holding company that will start new business units and acquire Christian content, marketing and distribution companies. Williamson, former president of Word Publishing, Nelson/Word Publishers and Integrity Publishers, will be president and CEO of the company intended to promote a Christian message in a variety of media and platforms. Worthy’s first business unit, Worthy Resources, will begin by producing a video series based on the bestselling 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper (Revell). “We believe video has taken on a new role because of the capacity of the Internet to deliver it any number of ways,” Williamson said. He expects to add book publishing at some point, either through startup or acquisition. “What you look for are ideas that can go across platforms,” he said.
As was reported earlier in PW Daily, Christian Book Expo, the consumer-focused book show, won’t be repeated next year. The board of Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, the show sponsor, decided not to stage another such event in 2010. Attendance at this year’s expo, held March 20–22 at the Dallas Convention Center, was 1,500; organizers had hoped for 10,000 to 15,000. The show left the organization with a $250,000 shortfall. “We want to clean up the debt before we consider future options,” ECPA president and CEO Mark Kuyper told PW in an e-mail.
