By Julia Duin
Four executives employed by the publishing arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were sacked recently at the organization's Hagerstown, Md., headquarters because of "mounting financial losses," denominational officials said.
The Maryland-based denomination, which has 16 million members worldwide in 203 countries including 1 million in North America, forced the resignations of top officials for the Review and Herald Publishing Association (RHPA) - a sign of the greater weakness in the religious publishing industry.
RHPA President Robert S. Smith, who had been 10 years in the position, was relieved of his duties after an April 29 board meeting. Vice President of Finance Hepsiba S. Singh will retire July 1. Mario P. Martinelli, vice president for books and subscription literature, and Richard A. Tooley, vice president for periodicals, were also let go.
Mark B. Thomas, vice president for graphics, was named interim president.
Revenues for the publisher have been flat for the past decade, according to denominational archives that show an annual revenues at $26 million in 2000 with a rise in sales to $36 million in 2008. Annual sales volume then dropped back down to its current level of $28 million.
Gerry Karst, vice chairman of the 39-member board, said two of the four employees let go were past retirement age.
"We'd come to a point where we needed to reorganize this institution," he said. "It's been operating for 161 years ... and the way people access information these days has changed, but our business model has remained the same."
The resignations, which were first reported in the Adventist Review, appear to follow other belt-tightening moves within the denomination. On April 22, the board of Adventist Risk Management, the church's insurance arm, voted to demote many of its managers to client services and relocate most of its employees from Riverside, Calif., to the denomination's Silver Spring, Md., headquarters.
"We needed some new blood and new thinking," Mr. Karst said of the RHPA. "The book market has become extremely tight and when you're a religious publisher, the market is narrower. That is why something had to change."
The Review and Herald Publishing Association were founded in 1849 to serve several "adventist" movements in upstate New York whose adherents believed that Christ would return to Earth in 1844. Eventually these movements merged to form the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Mich. in 1863.
Its publishing house puts out a stream of books and magazines, including Message, the country's oldest religious journal for black Americans.
But the Christian book publishing industry, in which a slight sales increase in March was the first positive change in net sales in more than a year, has been hurting, according to the Evangelical Christian Publishing Association.
Andy Butcher, editor of Christian Retailing magazine in Lake Mary, Fla., also called the past two years difficult.
"It's been hard in every part of the book world and Christian publishing has been no exception," he said, noting there is no current Christian best-seller to bring buyers into stores.
Four executives employed by the publishing arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were sacked recently at the organization's Hagerstown, Md., headquarters because of "mounting financial losses," denominational officials said.
The Maryland-based denomination, which has 16 million members worldwide in 203 countries including 1 million in North America, forced the resignations of top officials for the Review and Herald Publishing Association (RHPA) - a sign of the greater weakness in the religious publishing industry.
RHPA President Robert S. Smith, who had been 10 years in the position, was relieved of his duties after an April 29 board meeting. Vice President of Finance Hepsiba S. Singh will retire July 1. Mario P. Martinelli, vice president for books and subscription literature, and Richard A. Tooley, vice president for periodicals, were also let go.
Mark B. Thomas, vice president for graphics, was named interim president.
Revenues for the publisher have been flat for the past decade, according to denominational archives that show an annual revenues at $26 million in 2000 with a rise in sales to $36 million in 2008. Annual sales volume then dropped back down to its current level of $28 million.
Gerry Karst, vice chairman of the 39-member board, said two of the four employees let go were past retirement age.
"We'd come to a point where we needed to reorganize this institution," he said. "It's been operating for 161 years ... and the way people access information these days has changed, but our business model has remained the same."
The resignations, which were first reported in the Adventist Review, appear to follow other belt-tightening moves within the denomination. On April 22, the board of Adventist Risk Management, the church's insurance arm, voted to demote many of its managers to client services and relocate most of its employees from Riverside, Calif., to the denomination's Silver Spring, Md., headquarters.
"We needed some new blood and new thinking," Mr. Karst said of the RHPA. "The book market has become extremely tight and when you're a religious publisher, the market is narrower. That is why something had to change."
The Review and Herald Publishing Association were founded in 1849 to serve several "adventist" movements in upstate New York whose adherents believed that Christ would return to Earth in 1844. Eventually these movements merged to form the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Mich. in 1863.
Its publishing house puts out a stream of books and magazines, including Message, the country's oldest religious journal for black Americans.
But the Christian book publishing industry, in which a slight sales increase in March was the first positive change in net sales in more than a year, has been hurting, according to the Evangelical Christian Publishing Association.
Andy Butcher, editor of Christian Retailing magazine in Lake Mary, Fla., also called the past two years difficult.
"It's been hard in every part of the book world and Christian publishing has been no exception," he said, noting there is no current Christian best-seller to bring buyers into stores.
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Note: Bolds and Highlights added.
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In my view, the actions taken by the Board that sacked four leaders at the RHPA is disingenious and uncalled for.
ReplyDeleteThese were qualified persons: one a Phd, another a Phd candidate (dissertation soon), another with a doctorate degree, and another with many years of experience as treasurer.
All these executives were putting strategies in place to advance the sales of literature, when the Board struck with its viciousness.