 Industry News: Family Christian buyout,
‘Obamacare’ rulings top newsmakers
Two of the biggest stories of 2012 came near year's end—the contrasting mid-November rulings involving Tyndale House Publishers and Christian-owned-and-operated
Hobby Lobby Stores and sister company Mardel Christian & Education. A Nov. 16 federal court ruling stopped
enforcement of the Obama administration’s abortion pill mandate against
Tyndale, which filed a healthcare lawsuit against the government Oct. 2. Tyndale
specifically objects to
covering abortion pills. But,
unlike Tyndale's healthcare ruling, the court did not show favor to the Green
family, owners of Hobby Lobby and Mardel. U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton ruled
Nov. 19 that the Oklahoma City-based stores must provide insurance for the
“morning after” and “week after” pills under new federal healthcare rules that
begin Jan. 1. If they don’t, the companies will face significant fines. Another
big story broke in mid-November—the announcement of Family Christian Stores' management team
partnering with a group of Atlanta-based Christian businessmen to acquire the
company from its private equity owners, with plans to give 100% of its profits
to benefit Christian causes. Terms
of the Nov. 13 transaction—involving the nation’s largest Christian retail
chain—were not disclosed. Family reported that while its ownership structure
and financial purpose had changed, its operations will continue in a largely
“seamless” way, said Cliff Bartow, CEO of the company. In another sign of a changing Christian retail industry,
Covenant Group expanded its membership with the addition of the 18-outlet chain
Berean Christian Stores. With
the addition of Berean and two other independents, Covenant now has 20 dealerships,
representing 52 stores—an increase of more than 60% since fall 2011. LifeWay
Christian Stores President Mark Scott decided to retire in September following
several months of significant health issues. Scott’s position was filled by Tim
Vineyard, vice president of LifeWay’s technology division. LifeWay Christian
Resources CEO Thom Rainer was named acting president of the retail division
until LifeWay trustees can review and affirm the change at their next scheduled
meeting in February. CBA promoted Curtis Riskey from executive director to
president during an October
board meeting. Riskey
served as interim executive director after the unexpected resignation of
longtime President and CEO Bill Anderson in October 2009. He was appointed as
executive director in March 2010 with CBA adopting a new management model. In
September, HarperCollins’ new Christian division, comprised of Zondervan and
the newly acquired Thomas Nelson, announced its new leadership team, featuring
12 executives from both publishers. Mark Schoenwald leads the division as
president and CEO. HarperCollins
Christian Publishing also formed a single fiction team headed by Daisy Hutton,
formerly vice president and publisher of fiction at Thomas Nelson. Germany's Bertelsmann media company and British
publisher Pearson agreed to merge the book publishing units Random House and
Penguin Group last fall, forming the new Penguin Random House company, said to
be the world's largest publisher of consumer books. Bertelsmann owns Random
House, the parent company of WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. Meanwhile,
in a decision in favor of the federal government that could start an e-book
price war, Denise Cote, federal district judge in Manhattan, N.Y., approved a
settlement between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Hachette Book
Group, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster in a civil antitrust case that
accused the companies of price-fixing digital books. Evangelical
Christian Publishers Association President and CEO Mark Kuyper told Christian
Retailing  that Cole's decision could have “a very negative impact” on
e-book retailers.
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