Thanksgiving sales to fund Haiti building project

Family Christian Stores and the chain’s customers raised $278,673 Thanksgiving weekend to help build a new neonatal orphanage in Haiti through Family’s Haiti Challenge program.

“Just look at what our customers did,” said Family Christian President and CEO Cliff Bartow. “Their generosity and desire to do good are inspiring. Together we can now look forward to seeing these resources used by our God to rescue the lives of some of Haiti’s most vulnerable as He sees this project all the way through to completion.”

The monies raised through the  challenge will be used to begin building the orphanage in partnership with God’s Littlest Angels, a ministry that has been serving the children of Haiti since 1994.

In Haiti, one in five children die before the age of 5. Sixty percent of those do not reach their first birthday. Haiti also has the highest rate of maternal deaths in the Western Hemisphere, the chain reported.

“The situation for Haitian preemies—and particularly orphaned preemies—is especially dire,” said Dixie Bickel, co-founder of God’s Littlest Angels. “But God continues to amaze us with how He provides for the children we serve.”

“We are grateful to Family Christian and its wonderful customers for their incredible generosity,” Bickel added. “Lives will be saved because of it.”

“Together, Family Christian, its customers and my reader friends used this past Thanksgiving weekend to send a message: Orphans matter,” said No. 1 New York Times best-selling author Karen Kingsbury, ambassador for The Haiti Challenge.

Groundbreaking for the orphanage will happen in February. Family Christian will continue its efforts to cover the entire $500,000 cost of the building project by inviting customers to donate directly to the orphanage  online at  www.FamilyChristian.com/Haiti.

When complete, the facility will be able to serve more than 75 babies at a time. Once children are nursed to good health, they will transition back to their birth family or to an adoptive family. To date, 100% of the orphans in the program have found a home with “forever families.”

Kindle retailer program, Sunday delivery and the advent of high-tech drones could shake up retail

Amazon.com has recently introduced a slew of changes that impact retailers, their customers and the marketplace.

The development that most directly affects retailers is the Amazon Source program, billed as a partnership with retailers—including independent bookstores—through which brick-and-mortar stores can sell Amazon’s Kindle.

The program offers two options: the Bookseller Program, which allows retailers to purchase Kindles for resale at a 6% discount, while also earning a 10% commission on every e-book purchased on the device for two years after purchase; and the General Retail Program, which offers retailers a 9% discount on the devices, but with no e-book commission.

The online giant also is working with the U.S. Postal Service  to deliver packages to Amazon Prime members on Sunday, starting in the Los Angeles and New York City areas.

Amazon has also raised the bar for free Super Saver shipping to $35 instead of the $25 minimum order consumers have long been accustomed to from one of the Internet’s most-trafficked shopping sites.

When Amazon began Super Saver shipping, it was a factor in the shift many online retailers made to cheap or free shipping. Speculation is already whirring as to whether or not the move may push more shoppers toward Amazon’s Prime membership, which offers free two-day shipping after a $79 annual membership. Others imagine this may put a dent in Amazon’s business.

The final piece of big news to come from Amazon’s camp was the company’s unveiling of a revolutionary new delivery method: flying drones. A prototype drone was revealed by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on CBS’s 60 Minutes, along with the company’s plans to roll out the Amazon Prime Air service in the next several years.

Drone helicopters would transport packages of up to five pounds from one of Amazon’s expanding number of fulfillment centers across the country to a customer’s doorstep in 30 minutes or less. The company faces a number of hurdles—from Federal Aviation Administration rules on drone aircraft to the prototype’s range limitation of 10 miles—before the program can get off the ground.

Sale of Women of Faith live events brand partly to blame

HarperCollins reported a drop in sales for the fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30, though the publisher’s overall earnings increased.

Revenue decreased 7%, a $24 million drop, compared to the corresponding quarter in 2012, according to the quarterly report filed by parent company News Corp. The sales slump was “primarily due to softness in the Christian publishing marketplace.”

The report also cited “a $9 million decrease resulting from the sale of the Women of Faith live events business and the decision to exit the third party distribution business.” HarperCollins sold the Women of Faith live events business to WME Entertainment in August, though the publisher made no public announcement of the sale. Thomas Nelson will continue to publish books under the Women of Faith brand.

HarperCollins’ overall earnings during the period in its book publishing segment increased $3 million—an 8% rise—versus the same period the year before, “primarily due to the impact of cost containment initiatives and lower manufacturing costs reflecting the continued shift to e-book sales.” 

E-book sales represented 22% of the publisher’s revenues during the quarter, compared to 15% in the same period of 2012, a 31% increase.

Admission from President and CEO Thom Rainer hailed as ‘step toward healing’

LifeWay President and CEO Thom S. Rainer apologized for a decade-old Vacation Bible School (VBS) program published by the company that was perceived as offensive by many Asian-Americans. Rainer’s apology at the Mosaix conference in Long Beach, Calif., on Nov. 6 addressed the controversy around the Far Out Rickshaw Rally—Racing Towards the Son program, which was derided by critics as promoting racial stereotypes.

“Ten years ago, LifeWay’s Vacation Bible School material used racial stereotypes that offended many in the Asian-American community,” Rainer said in a video apology played at the gathering of more than 1,000 multiethnic church leaders. “I wasn’t part of LifeWay then, but I am now. And I’ve recently learned that decade-old offense is still a point of hurt for some.”

“As president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, I want to apologize,” he added. “I am sincerely sorry stereotypes were used in our materials, and I apologize for the pain they caused.”

Several Asian-American leaders responded to the apology, including Paul Kim, pastor emeritus of Antioch Baptist Church in Cambridge, Mass.

“I want Dr. Rainer to know I accept his apology with deep gratitude on behalf of our Asian community and desire we move forward for the kingdom’s service together,” Kim said. Kim and a group of Asian-American pastors will meet with LifeWay’s leadership in early 2014 to discuss next steps.

Asian leaders who attended the conference included Ray Chang, pastor of Ambassador Church in Brea, Calif., and Asian-American coordinator for the Evangelical Free Church who agreed that “LifeWay’s apology is a step toward healing.”

Soong-Chan Rah, professor of church growth and evangelism at Chicago’s North Park Theological Seminary, told attendees the apology allows the wounds to start healing.

”I am so thankful for LifeWay, in their words this morning, in a public setting, to say we were wrong,” he said. “I am so thankful because now the healing can begin and the reconciliation we have not been able to have can begin.”

LifeWay also pledged to continue to train its staff in being culturally sensitive.

“I will lead our executive leadership staff to engage in dialogue and conversation with ethnic leaders that we might go forth together to strengthen believers and reach people in North America and around the world,” Rainer concluded in his apology.

Church board begins lengthy process to find new publisher

Neil Alexander, president and publisher of The United Methodist Publishing House (UMPH), has announced his plan to retire before or soon after the denomination’s 2016 General Conference. The UMPH board has initiated a two-year process to search for a new publisher.

At the helm of the house since 1996, Alexander, who is 65, has worked at UMPH since 1988.

According to a report from The United Methodist Reporter, Alexander told the staff in an Oct. 30 letter that he would “be working with intensity and focus the next two-plus years—because our ministry and business require our faithful and full attention.” 

He also encouraged the staff, as they work together “for assuring UMPH’s future as a faithful, vibrant and nimble provider or resources people choose, use and value for Christian life and ministry.”

UMPH, parent company of the Cokesbury retail chain, completed the closing of its 57 stores in spring 2013. Rather than having physical stores, now CokesburyNext is selling books, products and services at Cokesbury.com, the Cokesbury Call Center and through sales representatives, conferences, meetings and church events. 

“Cokesbury has been serving for more than 200 years, and during that time has continuously adapted to the changing landscape affecting congregations and their leaders,” Alexander said when the retail announcement was made. “A shift toward all things digital and the convenience of placing orders at any time is the reality of Cokesbury today. It is difficult to see the closure of Cokesbury local stores, but doing so will allow us to make a greater investment in the ways of shopping with Cokesbury that customers increasingly prefer.”

UMPH products include Sunday school and Vacation Bible School programs, Bible studies, fiction and more through its Abingdon Press imprint. UMPH has 400 employees at its Nashville headquarters. UMPH’s building is part of a downtown site under contract to sell to a real estate developer who plans a mixed-use development for the location.

The house is looking into options for new offices in Nashville, but is expected to remain in its current location through most of 2014, according to The Tennessean.

High court to address HHS mandate on abortifacient drugs

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, a landmark case addressing the rights of business owners to operate their family companies without violating their religious convictions. 

The nation’s highest court accepted the federal government’s appeal of a June decision by the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals that a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate to provide potentially life-terminating contraceptive drugs and devices in employee insurance plans places a substantial burden on the religious freedoms of Hobby Lobby and sister company Mardel Christian & Education stores, which are solely owned by founder David Green and his family.

“This is a major step for the Greens and their family businesses in an important fight for Americans’ religious liberty,” said Kyle Duncan, general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and lead lawyer for Hobby Lobby. “We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will clarify once and for all that religious freedom in our country should be protected for family business owners like the Greens.” 

In July, a lower federal court granted Hobby Lobby a preliminary injunction preventing the government from enforcing the HHS mandate requiring family businesses to provide in the employee health insurance plan two drugs and two devices that are abortifacient.

The Greens and their family businesses—who have no moral objection to providing 16 of the 20 FDA-approved contraceptives required under the mandate—then took the unusual step in October of joining the government in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case, despite the family’s Tenth Circuit victory.

“My family and I are encouraged that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide our case,” said Green, Hobby Lobby’s founder and CEO. “This legal challenge has always remained about one thing and one thing only: the right of our family businesses to live out our sincere and deeply held religious convictions as guaranteed by the law and the Constitution. Business owners should not have to choose between violating their faith and violating the law.”

The case will be argued and decided before the end of the Supreme Court’s term in June.

Nonfiction publishers in CBA market opt to either embrace or eschew widely adopted educational program

New Common Core educational standards became a source of controversy even before being adopted for use by 45 U.S. states. Some Christian publishers are applying the standards to their products while others are running in the other direction.

“Common Core has become a lightning rod, layered with issues and emotions that don’t relate directly to the academic achievement of students,” said Mary Manz Simon, author and children’s market consultant. “As an early childhood educator, I work with content at the lower primary levels. Based on my experience, Common Core is providing a desperately needed scaffolding of learning skills for these early grades. The degree of content mastery is more rigorous and demanding than what we have known.

“The standards emphasize higher levels of critical thinking, which include analysis, synthesis and evaluation,” Simon added. “I believe some of the negativism toward Common Core comes when those aspects of interpretive thinking, especially by students in upper grades, are applied to biblical learning.

“At all levels, however, the assessment piece of the initiative subjects students to more testing, which is a concern in our current ‘test culture.’ ” 

Common Core requires new and revised materials—and that’s where Christian publishers enter today’s classroom.

“Tommy Nelson has reviewed much of our backlist and applied the Common Core standards,” said Laura Minchew, senior vice president and publisher, specialty publishing, for HarperCollins Christian. “We also run our new titles through Common Core guidelines.”

“We are not specifically creating products for the educational market,” Minchew clarified. “However, we will have a landing page with all of the Tommy Nelson titles and the associated Common Core standards.”

Senior Vice President and Zondervan Group Publisher Annette Bourland said that Zondervan is “working to support these standards by offering a diverse variety of books for every grade level, making it easier for educators, librarians and parents to find Common Core-compliant books.”

Meanwhile, Master Books is against Common Core. 

“We have not, and have no plans to, alight with the Common Core State Standards,” said Laura Welch, editor in chief for New Leaf Publishing Group. “New Leaf Publishing Group, which includes Master Books, adheres to the policy of upholding biblical standards of education.

“The idea that education may soon be controlled by the government is an unsettling thought,” the statement continued. “We create resources from a biblical worldview that teach the Bible as truth and draw from the Bible our world’s history and science. We believe families should be able to make their own educational decisions appropriate for their children, which adhere to their personal belief systems and exclusionary of false theories such as evolution.”

Despite the controversy, at press time Common Core had been adopted in all but five states, but implementation has been a challenge. Simon spoke of miscommunication surrounding the adoption of the new standards as well as an “accelerated timeline” that makes everyone feel “rushed.”

“Few of us like change,” she added, “and change at hyperspeed is rarely embraced when driven from the top down.”

General market store mishap underscores value of the service you provide

You may have heard that a Southern California Costco recently stocked copies of the Bible with a “Fiction” sticker on them. When a pastor noted the error and tried to get someone to help to no avail, he tweeted a photo of the Bible display and FOX News picked up the story.

Costco eventually corrected the error, issuing the following statement: “Costco’s distributor mislabeled a small percentage of the Bibles, however we take responsibility and should have caught the mistake. We are correcting this with them for future distribution. In addition, we are immediately relabeling all mislabeled Bibles. We greatly apologize for this error.”

I expect it quickly came to your mind, as it did to mine, that the “fiction Bible” error underscores the fact that Christian retailers likely know the Scriptures and related products better than general market retailers as a whole—and serve an important need in their communities. As a longtime customer of Christian retail stores, I am thankful for frontliners who keep displays in order and can answer questions from their significant knowledge of the products they sell.

Each year we celebrate the quality of their products in our Christian Retailing’s Best awards. With the 2014 awards season upon us, we look forward to seeing what publishers, authors, music labels, DVD companies and gift suppliers will deem worthy to nominate. What will they consider their best products from last year—and will Christian retailers and others from our industry agree? We’ll find out soon enough!

Finally, I remember a Christian retailer saying to me once that he never realized we would want feedback from our readers. I appreciated his honest surprise, but yes, we do! 

We value your honest assessment of our work at Christian Retailing and want to know if what we do every day is serving our readers well. So, our contact information is available to you in each issue (see p. 3), or if you’d like to get to know our editorial and advertising team members, visit our Contact Us page at www.christianretailing.com. 

At our website, you also will find a wealth of resources, including more news than we can fit into our print issue; links to our free digital issue; and the New Release Listing, with its abundance of new products. See you there!

Texas company known for Scourby KJV audio Bible ‘moves to new level’ in a changing marketplace

Casscom Media is building its business through key partnerships, including an agreement with Scandinavia Publishing House based in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Specializing in the co-production of such products as children’s Bibles and gift books, Scandinavia is “one of the largest publishers of children’s Christian products in the world,” said Don Greve, vice president of marketing at Greenville, Texas-based Casscom, which is perhaps best known for its work duplicating the King James audio Bible narrated by Alexander Scourby.

Six years ago, Casscom President Dwain Moyer rehired Greve, who was involved in Casscom’s founding, to “move Casscom to a new level in the marketplace that’s changing,” Greve told Christian Retailing.

“We’ve become a full publisher with Scandinavia, with Rick Green, with Jim Stovall, different people that publish different things that are really powerful for the Christian market,” Greve said. “We provide the fulfillment and we provide the marketing and we provide the art. We’ll do any aspect of it except the creative portion, which somebody else does, and then we join with them.”

Clearly committed to the Christian retailer, Casscom reported a successful show with three of its reps busy writing orders from stores at September’s CPE Murfreesboro hosted by Munce Group.

“We think the retailer today is under great stress, stress that’s coming from Internet marketers that are kind of like pirates,” Greve said. “They steal other people’s business and they don’t really do anything to help the marketplace, and they don’t have the overhead that brick-and-mortar stores have.”

Greve said that Casscom aims “to take high-quality products and keep our customers competitive so that it is a fact that you can go to their retail brick-and-mortar store and buy for an amount maybe even less than what’s sold on the Internet, but certainly they can be competitive with it. It isn’t that people don’t like to buy at brick-and-mortar stores, they just don’t want to pay extra for the privilege, so it’s our commitment to provide quality products at bargain and fair prices that our retailers can make money on and do well.”

Leading Christian poster maker curtails aggressive growth strategy to focus on adding more designs to current lines

Slingshot Publishing has seen a change in ownership, effective Sept. 20. Founded by Mike Clark in 2004, the Ontario, Canada-based supplier of posters, magnets, T-shirts, laptop skins and more saw its business grow “from nothing into the largest Christian poster designer in North America,” new owner Adam Brodrecht said.

The company changed hands with Brodrecht and another investor who already was involved with the company assuming ownership. A company of “about 10,” Slingshot has been restructured and uses “a whole bunch of contractors,” he said.

“Slingshot was doing some really aggressive growth strategy and invested a lot of money into new products,” Brodrecht explained. “Essentially what’s happened is there were a lot of profitability concerns. However, there were some really great foundations laid. The sales strategy didn’t pan out the way that they anticipated it would. … Really, we’re here to take what has been laid as a great foundation and take it to the next level.”

As for what the future might hold for the company, Brodrecht expects “profitability.”

“Moving forward in the near future with the amount of firepower we have in the design side, with four designers and two artists that are just really capable, part of the future is going to be a lot of new designs are going to hit the catalog and hit the supplement catalogs continuing in 2014 and 2015,” Brodrecht said.

The Slingshot team has a faith-based mission motivation.

“Each one of these people that are involved in this process, we all have a real heart for creating influence in the marketplace and having a message of grace and of passion and of love hit the posters, and so it’s almost that desire to influence a generation is driving us more than the desire to actually design,” he said. “One’s the vehicle to changing lives and one is the actual motivation to get in the vehicle and drive.”

Aiming to “promote the gospel through great design,” the company is mainly working toward new designs in its current lines, but did recently start making plaques using its poster designs. 

Retailing for $25 each, the plaques are “better for the home décor than a 2 foot-by-3 foot poster for a lot of families,” Brodrecht said.

The plaques were developed in early 2013, but didn’t hit the retail market until mid-to-late 2013.

The company is also beefing up its online presence to capture sales online.

“We really like to start hitting the more mobile and cross-device platforms,” he said.

Brodrecht, however, emphasized that retail is “the core of our business.” The company will continue using Dicksons as its distributor, a partnership that has paid off well in growing the company.