Posted on 11/07/2008 3:18:43 PM PST by RobinOfKingston
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
November 7, 2008
Augsburg Fortress Publishers Announces Changes in Business Model 08-186-JB
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Augsburg Fortress, the publishing ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Minneapolis, announced Nov. 7 significant changes in its business operations. The publisher will focus its ministry on its "two most important callings"-- group-use materials for congregations, such as faith formation and worship materials, and textbooks and monographs for higher education, said Beth A. Lewis, Augsburg Fortress president and chief executive officer. Based on a year of analysis of market and business research, a strategic plan for the publisher's new direction was presented and unanimously approved at a regular meeting of the board of trustees for Augsburg Fortress Oct. 24-25 in Minneapolis. The new business plan will result in some personnel changes. Thirteen positions will be added to the company's information technology, marketing and sales operations. Fifty-five positions will be eliminated, Lewis said. The company has 242 full- and part-time staff. Laid-off employees will remain on the payroll through at least 2008 and some well into 2009, and the publisher is providing outplacement services, Lewis said. The ELCA publisher's new priorities will result in some changes in traditional offerings, Lewis said: + A new Web site will feature improved navigation and search capabilities. The http://www.augusburgfortress.org site will be relaunched Dec. 1. + Augsburg Fortress will not accept or sell new titles in its consumer-oriented book line, though it will continue to market stocks on hand. + It will close nine bookstores by April 30, 2009. A store at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., is not owned by Augsburg Fortress. The company will continue to rent space there and market group-use resources to congregations. Augsburg Fortress' Canadian bookstores will remain open. + Augsburg Fortress will no longer provide bookstore operations at synod assemblies and most large ELCA churchwide events, such as ELCA Youth Gatherings and Women of the ELCA Triennial Gatherings. It will continue to provide a bookstore at ELCA churchwide assemblies. Lewis explained that the publisher will work in partnership with synods and offer services to teach members about new resources and faith formation teaching techniques. "This adds value for synods and for us," Lewis said. + Giving envelopes and worship supplies, such as communion wafers and cups, and candles, will still be available. Items that don't sell well will be dropped. The company's refined priorities began with discussions, in executive session, at the board of trustees' spring 2008 meeting, Lewis said. "We questioned whether we should be in all markets or whether denominational publishing is viable," she said. The board encouraged the publisher's leadership team to start with a blank sheet of paper and rethink the company's priorities for the future, she said. "Augsburg Fortress is undergoing important strategic changes to focus our ministry and business -- and some are very painful on a personal level as we say good-bye to wonderful colleagues. We are confident that, while difficult, these changes are necessary and will enable Augsburg Fortress to be a strong and responsive organization for the future," Lewis said.
For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
Based on a year of analysis of market and business research, a strategic plan for the publisher's new direction was presented and unanimously approved at a regular meeting of the board of trustees for Augsburg Fortress Oct. 24-25 in Minneapolis.
The new business plan will result in some personnel changes. Thirteen positions will be added to the company's information technology, marketing and sales operations. Fifty-five positions will be eliminated, Lewis said. The company has 242 full- and part-time staff. Laid-off employees will remain on the payroll through at least 2008 and some well into 2009, and the publisher is providing outplacement services, Lewis said.
The ELCA publisher's new priorities will result in some changes in traditional offerings, Lewis said:
+ A new Web site will feature improved navigation and search capabilities. The http://www.augusburgfortress.org site will be relaunched Dec. 1.
+ Augsburg Fortress will not accept or sell new titles in its consumer-oriented book line, though it will continue to market stocks on hand.
+ It will close nine bookstores by April 30, 2009. A store at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., is not owned by Augsburg Fortress. The company will continue to rent space there and market group-use resources to congregations. Augsburg Fortress' Canadian bookstores will remain open.
+ Augsburg Fortress will no longer provide bookstore operations at synod assemblies and most large ELCA churchwide events, such as ELCA Youth Gatherings and Women of the ELCA Triennial Gatherings. It will continue to provide a bookstore at ELCA churchwide assemblies. Lewis explained that the publisher will work in partnership with synods and offer services to teach members about new resources and faith formation teaching techniques. "This adds value for synods and for us," Lewis said.
+ Giving envelopes and worship supplies, such as communion wafers and cups, and candles, will still be available. Items that don't sell well will be dropped.
The company's refined priorities began with discussions, in executive session, at the board of trustees' spring 2008 meeting, Lewis said. "We questioned whether we should be in all markets or whether denominational publishing is viable," she said. The board encouraged the publisher's leadership team to start with a blank sheet of paper and rethink the company's priorities for the future, she said.
"Augsburg Fortress is undergoing important strategic changes to focus our ministry and business -- and some are very painful on a personal level as we say good-bye to wonderful colleagues. We are confident that, while difficult, these changes are necessary and will enable Augsburg Fortress to be a strong and responsive organization for the future," Lewis said.
Have you every heard my ELCA story about butterflies?
What this means, in a nutshell, is that their amassed offerings of pasteurized homogenized secularized vitamin D pablum is being ignored by the reading public. Same thing going on with "The Lutheran" their church organ. Used to be congregations would subscribe en mass, but no more. Circulation is dropping like a rock, the same as the rest of the MSM.
Items that don't sell well will be dropped.
Sounds more like sound management.
Martin Luther would vehemently denounce what this synod preaches. One can almost imagine two possible titles for monographs: How to Remove That 95-Theses Tramp Stamp and Blessing Pets – As Seen Through The Eyes of a Female Pastor on Gaia’s Behalf, Not the God of the Old Testament.
They used to be very good, but have been sliding down hill for years.
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