Through the years Christian Retailing has detailed many promotions within the Christian products industry—from CEOs of large companies to other positions.

Now I am happy to announce a significant promotion for the magazine itself—Dave Condiff is now publisher of the Christian Retailing group, which includes not only this title but also Inspirational Gift Trends and The Church Bookstore.

We reported this move to the industry in our Christian Etailing electronic news service a few weeks ago, but I felt that it would also be appropriate for me as owner to write further about Dave’s accomplishments and how this change will help not only Christian Retailing grow and change in very turbulent times, but will also help the industry.

For 14 years Dave owned and operated a very successful Christian bookstore in Minneapolis, Praise Unlimited, which back at the time was one of Christian Retailing’s annual Top 100 Stores. It was a trailblazer store in many ways, especially in selling contemporary Christian music and church choral music.
Dave moved to Florida, where my company is located, in 1999 and for three years worked for Music Service, organizing and leading church music conferences across the country.

I’ve had the privilege of working with Dave since he joined Strang Communications in 2002. Through the years he has been an outstanding salesman and has been a part of our Million Dollar Club, meaning he’s sold more than $1 million in advertising a year for several years.

But in his role it was quickly apparent that he was interested in more than just helping advertisers reach the readers of Christian Retailing—he also really loves the industry.

In turn, I’ve observed that the industry has loved him back. Hailing from Minnesota, Dave embodies “Minnesota nice.” He’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever want to meet, and those who work with him in the industry have found this to be true.But Dave’s “niceness” doesn’t take away from the fact he’s a disciplined businessman with an entrepreneurial edge.

When we saw so many large churches opening bookstores, he suggested Christian Retailing serve that market by launching The Church Bookstore, and inviting people working at church bookstores to meet with the magazine’s top advertisers at The Gathering of Church Bookstores.

This event has grown and expanded into the new Gathering we are going to be sponsoring in January.
In addition to offering more of the training and support for church bookstores that has been so appreciated in the last few years, the program’s added independent retail and inspirational gifts focus will broaden the opportunities for other parts of the Christian retail channel to meet and prepare for business at the crucial beginning of the year. We believe this event will help connect more buyers and vendors and help grow the industry.

As Dave picks up his publisher responsibilities, January will also see the launch of two new series in Christian Retailing intended to help provide vision and focus for the industry.

We’ll be inviting leading suppliers, retailers, service providers and other industry figures to challenge, encourage, inspire and equip others through a new guest column forum in which they will address practices, trends, problems and opportunities in a series of open letters. The contributors will include some familiar, long-respected names and some thought-provoking newcomers.

In the same way that Christian Retailing has been bringing an independent perspective to industry issues for decades, we will provide a major industry voice to deal with the enormous changes taking place in our industry.

In addition, we will introduce The Essential Guide to Christian Retailing, a major feature series that will help establish a new benchmark for successful selling of Christian products.

Each issue of the year will spotlight a different aspect, from business fundamentals to handling specific product categories. We’ll talk to the key thinkers in the area and show how the best practitioners operate. We’ll look at trends in culture and commerce, and how they are affecting the industry.

We also have plans to develop more online content in 2009. And we are exploring other ways to serve the market through additional focused supplements and publications like The Church Bookstore and Inspirational Gift Trends. More about these plans later.

We know that our publication succeeds only as our readers and advertisers are succeeding. This is not about us; it’s about you and the industry. I look forward to stronger ties under Dave’s leadership with the several trade associations serving the industry, with the various buying groups and with each of our advertisers.

Speaking of which, Dave recently reported in a meeting that, going into 2009, advertising is picking up.
Even with the current economic slowdown, this is a good sign that things are beginning to improve. The reason: Advertising levels are always an early indicator that things are getting tough and an early indicator when things are turning around. So that bodes well for not only Christian Retailing, but also for the industry as a whole.

On a personal note, Dave’s coming to our company has been a blessing in more ways than one.  
It has truly become a “family affair” since his oldest daughter, Amy Condiff, also joined our staff and is now doing an outstanding job as my personal secretary. In addition, his younger daughter Jennifer was married Oct. 18 to a member of my staff—Steve Ghiringhelli, the assistant news editor for Charisma magazine.

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