50 Years of Christian Retailing

The growth and spreading influence of the Christian products industry through the last 50 years has been mirrored in the development of the publication that has served as its independent voice.

From a quarterly title to an award-winning 20-issues-a-year trade magazine, Christian Retailing has expanded its coverage to serve Christian publishers and retailers in the ever-changing CBA market and beyond.

Like the industry it reports on, through hundreds of issues, Christian Retailing has seen growth spurts and some downturns, and even made headlines in other media through the years.

As well as serving both suppliers and retailers, the magazine has helped newcomers and industry veterans alike with its industry news, product reports and reviews, and discussion of key industry issues.

In addition, the publication has provided practical how-to instruction on retailing and management, which has helped the likes of Kelly Maigaard, manager/co-owner of Wellspring Christian Resources bookstore in Des Moines, Iowa.

"We learn from others and it is the only way we were able to jump into an industry that we had no experience in and feel that we were a part of a bigger whole," she said.

Christian Retailing was born with encouragement from early CBA board members who recognized the need for a publication for the fledgling industry.

Four years after the trade association's 1950 founding, an introductory issue of Christian Bookseller was produced for CBA's summer convention.

Regular publication began in January 1955-the same year that saw Disneyland open in Anaheim, Calif., McDonald's fast food debut in Des Plains, Ill., and Christian best-sellers including Dale Evans Rogers' Angel Unawares and Billy Graham's Peace With God.

The launch of Christian Bookseller was the joint effort of two men: Robert Walker, then-editor/publisher of Christian Life magazine, and his editorial director, Bill Petersen.

'KNOW-HOW'

Twenty-five-year-old Petersen had gotten out of the Army in 1953 and was pleased when Walker hired him as an editor at the Chicago-based Christian Life-a popular magazine that for many years held the spot as the nation's top evangelical publication.

At night Petersen attended nearby Northwestern University's journalism school where he was taking classes in business magazine publishing.

One of his professors required each student to create a prototype magazine for a business.

"I decided my prototype would be a magazine for the Christian bookstore industry," Petersen recalled. Publishers Weekly was the only other publication that came close and at the time it wasn't covering Christian bookstores.

Petersen presented his idea to Walker and Ken Taylor, a leading figure in Christian publishing, then Moody Press and CBA director. Both were enthusiastic.

Initial plans were for Christian Bookseller to be a 48-page quarterly publication, but that was quickly revised as advertising started selling like hotcakes.

The first 1955 issue was doubled in size, featuring articles such as "Selling Is Fun" and "What You Should Know About Bookbinding." After just two issues it became a bi-monthly publication.

By 1958 Christian Bookseller was published eight times a year, becoming a monthly magazine in the early 1960s.

"Bob Walker was really the key to the publication," Petersen said. "It was my idea and I presented it to him as my boss, but it was his drive, know-how, contacts and expertise that made it work."

Now semi-retired and senior acquisitions editor for Revell, Petersen said he still remembered when the first official issue came off the press in 1955.

But there was an unexpected thrill: discovering that Christian Bookseller was helping people fulfill a call of God on their lives.

Christian Life magazine had been receiving letters every month from people who were trying to run a Christian bookstore. "They weren't interested in making money," Petersen said. "They were interested in serving the Lord."

Some of them had other businesses-a florist who turned an empty room into a small Christian bookstore or a barber with a bookrack in the corner of his shop.

"Sometimes they neglected the financial aspects of their business, and sometimes they went bankrupt," Petersen said. "Christian Bookseller was helping these people understand basic business principles as well as how to carry on a valuable Christian ministry."

'DOWN-TO-EARTH'

Petersen said he knew five things in those early days-the magazine "was meeting a felt need; it was an independent voice in the field; it was down-to-earth; it treated the entire industry-not just books; and suppliers needed help advertising their products to the bookseller. I felt that as long as it continued to balance those five things, it would survive, if not thrive."

In the course of five decades, the magazine has charted the industry's maturation and championed its significance. Editors and contributing writers have covered acquisitions, sales, mergers, closures, trends and scandals.

Christian Bookseller reported the growth of Christian book sales and the emergence of the Christian music industry through the 1970s and early 1980s. In the last few years the magazine has followed the re-evaluation of the Christian retail industry prompted by the growing general market interest in inspirational books and other products, and the resulting downturn for CBA market retailers.

As well as providing a platform for industry leaders to offer their perspectives on key issues, the magazine has presented its own opinions on topics as diverse as store staff training and the effectiveness of trade shows, prompting debate in its letters pages and at industry gatherings.

The publication also made a significant statement to and in the industry in 1986 when its name changed to Christian Retailing, in recognition of the expanding nature of the Christian products world.

The new title was introduced by Stephen Strang, publisher and editor of Charisma magazine, who had taken over Christian Bookseller, moving the operations from Chicago to the Orlando, Fla., area.

In 1993 the frequency of publication was boosted from 12 to 18 times a year to keep up with the rapidly changing industry.

Four years later, two more issues were added each year. An e-mail news service that later went online, Christian Etailing, was introduced in 2000 to provide even more immediate information.

The free twice-weekly service provides more timely industry news, announcements of events, special reports from trade shows and details of upcoming media appearances of authors and recording artists that could impact sales at Christian retail.

In addition, Christian Retailing has added standing features through the years that provide targeted information on specialized interest areas, through sections devoted to Children, Video/DVD and Hispanic markets.

Although it has long covered the Catholic/liturgical segment of the industry by reporting on such events as the annual Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit (RBTE) show, Christian Retailing recently added a regular Catholic/liturgical section to its lineup to extend its coverage in this area.

'IMPORTANT INSIGHTS'

As well as reporting on breaking industry news, the magazine has stepped back to look at developing trends in more detail, addressing topics such as the growth in charismatic and fiction titles, and the changes in the homeschooling world.

The magazine also noted the booming gift segment in Christian retail, launching the spin-off Inspirational Giftware in 1999.

After a downturn in the industry and the economy in 2001, the stand-alone gifts title ceased publication until the market rebounded last year, when it was re-launched as a supplement to Christian Retailing.

The growing global market has been acknowledged and supported with the 2004 introduction of a quarterly international edition, Christian Retailing International, which has readers in about 30 countries and reports on trends and news beyond North America.

One of the magazine's most popular recent additions has been its Mystery Shopper column that debuted in January 2004, with "undercover" representatives from Christian Retailing visiting and critiquing Christian bookstores around the country on design, inventory, merchandising and staffing. The anonymous reviews won an award from the Florida Magazine Association.

Covering a growing and changing industry that has grappled with a variety of challenges along the way, Christian Retailing at times has had to tackle controversial topics-and been the subject of criticism.

In a 1988 column "CBA Needs to be More Open," Strang called upon CBA leaders to be more forthcoming in disclosing to members the organization's financial matters and real estate holdings.

Strang and the editorial staff had obtained a copy of CBA's 990 tax form for fiscal year 1985 and discovered that the trade association had given the Internal Revenue Service a great deal more detail on expenses than what CBA had stated to its members in financial statements.

In 2002 Strang came under fire for running an advertisement in Christian Retailing and sister magazine Charisma signed by 100 Christian leaders who criticized Zondervan's new Today's New International Version (TNIV) Bible.

Strang said that he had taken no editorial position for or against the TNIV and would have accepted ads from both sides of the controversy, allowing readers to decide who to believe.

But not to have run the ads, he said at the time, would have been a sign that "we could be intimidated."

While accepting the occasional brickbats, the magazine also has sought to encourage the industry by offering its own bouquets.

The annual Retailers Choice Awards debuted in 2001, providing retailers with an opportunity to vote on what they consider to be the best new products in the industry.

In addition, Christian Retailing has presented VIP (Visionary Industry Pioneer) awards to veterans who have played a major role in shaping the Chris