In Radical Reorg, Nelson to Drop Imprints

by Lynn Garrett, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 10/17/2006

In a move called the One Company Initiative, Thomas Nelson is eliminating all of its imprints and reorganizing its publishing functions around strategic publishing units keyed to BISAC category codes. The company's 18 imprints (as well as the three it just acquired with its purchase of Integrity) will be phased out effective April 1, according to president and CEO Michael Hyatt and executive v-p and chief publishing officer Tami Heim. The restructuring was announced to employees on Friday. "The old imprint model no longer serves us well," Hyatt told PW. "It's an inside-out way of looking at the market, self-focused rather than customer-focused. The only ones who care about imprints are publishers, and they are expensive to maintain." The category model, said Heim, reflects how people shop, with research showing that most shoppers look for books based on author, message and topic. Over the past several months Nelson has developed a proprietary database using data from STATS and Nielsen BookScan to look at the size and growth rates of categories and the company's market share in those categories, said Hyatt. "We saw how we are doing in categories we're already in, and we also saw some we want to get into." Tracking their books' performance by category will give Nelson a much clearer picture of how the titles are performing. The reorg will also eliminate title redundancy and improve communication across the company. "There's been a lot of overlap between our four trade imprints—W, Current, Rutledge Hill and Nelson Books. We need to get out of each other's way and collaborate more," said Hyatt. The reorganization will shift focused resources to the house's branded authors ( such as Max Lucado) and enable Nelson to publish and promote them more efficiently across all formats, Heim said. "This gives us a fact-based approach, and we'll be able to do more with fewer titles." Some 14,000 Nelson titles have been recoded as part of the process. Hyatt said there would be no layoffs as a result of the restructuring. "In fact, we think it will create jobs," he said, estimating that only 10 people changed immediate supervisor. Publishers of the various imprints are being placed in charge of the new publishing units (see the Oct. 23 issue of PW for details), and marketing staff is being moved back into the publishing units. Jerry Park, executive v-p and chief marketing officer will retire at the end of the fiscal year in March. Asked how the new structure would affect some of the edgier books being published under the new Naked Ink imprint, Hyatt said, "We'll still do those kinds of things as long as they are congruent with our mission and values." After April 1, all books will be published or reprinted with only the Thomas Nelson Publishers name and logo on the jacket. Hyatt estimates it will take up to two years to cycle out all of the backlist under the old imprint names. And although all future titles will only bear the Nelson name, Hyatt said the company will retain the imprint names for some unspecified future use. "We think they [imprints] have some value," Hyatt said This article originally appeared in the October 17, 2006 issue of PW Daily. For more information about PW Daily, including a sample and subscription information, click here »

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