Episcopal Publisher Halts Trade Acquisitions  

By Marcia Z. Nelson -- Publishers Weekly, 5/11/2009 3:24:00 PM

Church Publishing, the publishing arm of the U.S. Episcopal Church, says it is “suspending” acquisitions of new trade books because of the current market decline in general trade publishing. CPI will scale back activity at its trade imprint Seabury Books and implement a 30% staff reduction. Spokesperson Nancy Fisher had no details on the reductions. She also said that books currently under contract would be produced, and that backlist titles would continue to be supported and promoted; more books had been made available for Amazon’s Kindle reader. 

The Morehouse and Church Publishing imprints will concentrate on producing material and supplies for worship and church life, including e-products. All production will be centralized under new v-p for production Lorraine Simonello. Editorial acquisitions will continue under CPI editorial director Frank Tedeschi and publisher Davis Perkins. Fisher said the publisher would monitor the market with an eye to resuming trade publishing when the market was more favorable.