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.augsburgfortress.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.
***
GJ - Mrs. Ichabod and I met Beth Lewis at the national communication conference of the LCA, in the good old days. At one point Fortress was the leading publisher of books used in the Notre Dame theology program (PhD, not DMin). A few years later they were publishing books by women Jewish rabbis and other oddball feminists. Their church materials went from liberal to atrocious. Ever since the merger in 1987 they have been revising their business model and hoping to make money again.
Here is the funny part. ELCA has a huge PR budget and lots of staff. They launched their new website with a notice giving this (below) as the address for Augsburg Fortress, the merger of the ALC and LCA publication houses.
"+ A new Web site will feature improved navigation and search capabilities. The http://www.augusburgfortress.org (sic) site will be relaunched Dec. 1."
Some of you are waiting for some gratuitous remark about a WELS apostate doing their proof-reading. No, I will not stoop that low...today.
