Standard Publishing Group, a division of CFM Religion Publishing Group, has sold the Rainbow Study Bible brand to B&H Publishing Group.

“This is a win for both companies,” said CFM Publishing CEO and President Peter M. Esposito. “At Standard, we are aligning our focus to our core strengths, to be the leading provider of church resources, including adult and children’s curriculum and special programming like Vacation Bible School. B&H has expertise in Bible publishing, and this adds a best-seller to their existing portfolio.”

Integrity Music Group's The City Harmonic won this past weekend during the Juno Awards, Canada's equivalent to the GRAMMY Awards. The band was honored with the Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year for I Have a Dream (It Feels Like Home) (Provident Distribution).

A first-time Juno winner, the band was recognized during the event, held April 21 at the Brandt Center in Regina, Saskatchewan.

The City Harmonic was chosen over Colin Bernard, Newworldson, Manafest and Thousand Foot Krutch.

Visit http://junoawards.ca/nominees-winners/ for the complete list of the 42nd Annual Juno Award winners.

Motown Records and EMI Gospel have formed a joint venture partnership with the creation of the new Motown Gospel label.

The first new signing to Motown Gospel was GRAMMY winner CeCe Winans, whose new album is slated for early 2014. Along with Winans, the label will also release albums this year by Tye Tribbett (Greater Than, June 4), Karen Clark Sheard and Smokie Norful.

"UMG's [Universal Music Group] acquisition of EMI Music offered the ideal opportunity to merge the EMI Gospel label with the strength of the newly revitalized Motown Records," said Barry Weiss, chairman and CEO of UMG East Coast Label Group. "The new Motown Gospel label will offer broader Urban AC crossover potential and further opportunities and synergy between Motown Gospel artists and the Motown and Island Def Jam (IDJ) urban roster."

Bill Hearn, president and CEO of Capitol Christian Music Group, added: "I've been a huge fan of Barry Weiss for years. Through his leadership of the Verity Label in the past, he's been responsible for much of the growth and artist development in gospel music today. I can't wait to partner with Barry, Motown through A&R collaboration, and promotion and marketing support from Steve Bartels and the amazing IDJ team. I'm confident Motown Gospel will now be even more effective at connecting our artists with their fans and growing their fan base."

Motown Gospel will headed by EMI Gospel President Ken Pennell, who will report to Hearn. Hearn reports directly to Capitol Music Group Chairman and CEO Steve Barnett.

GRAMMY Award-winning songwriter/producer Aaron Lindsey, whose production credits include Marvin Sapp's No. 1 gospel crossover hit "Never Would Have Made It," has been appointed vice president of A&R at Motown Gospel.

The new label was officially launched April 2 at the Arc Theatre in Los Angeles with a gala press reception and artist showcase, featuring performances by Smokie Norful, Tasha Cobbs, Tye Tribbett and Kierra Sheard. The Motown Gospel roster includes Stellar Award-winning artists VaShawn Mitchell, Anita Wilson, Pastor Charles Jenkins and Fellowship Chicago.

HarperCollins Christian Publishing has entered into a licensing agreement with the Spanish publishing house Editorial CLIE (Committee on Literature for Evangelical Churches).

With the exception of Spain, HarperCollins Christian Publishing will hold global print and distribution rights for the entire CLIE product catalog, including frontlist and backlist as well as future titles.

Located in Viladecavalls, Spain, a suburb of Barcelona, CLIE is well-known in the Spanish Christian world for publishing classic authors such as Charles Spurgeon, Matthew Henry, William MacDonald and Alfred Edershein. The agreement also includes licensing of the popular 1977 revised Reina-Valera Spanish Bible translation.

With one of the largest selections of Spanish reference materials for pastors and church leaders, CLIE will remain a separate imprint under HarperCollins Christian Publishing's international team, joining Grupo Nelson and Vida.

In the early 20th century, Samuel Vila began CLIE to share the gospel with the Spanish-speaking world. After the Spanish Civil War, when evangelical literature was totally forbidden under Spain's dictatorship, CLIE secretly continued printing and distributing books. Vila, who died at the age of 90, continued to operate CLIE in hiding until Christian ministries were again legalized in 1967.

"Throughout the course of my career, I have had the privilege to periodically work with the Vila family and see how their work has impacted pastors and leaders across Latin America," said Larry Downs, vice president and publisher of Grupo Nelson. "This new relationship allows HarperCollins Christian Publishing to showcase and provide the best Spanish-language resources for the church today."

Eliseo Vila, president of CLIE and son of Samuel Vila, added: "The three most important imprints of Christian literature in Spanish, Grupo Nelson, Vida and CLIE, working together under the umbrella of Harper Collins Christian Publishing, involve significant synergies that will result in major benefits for the entire Christian Spanish-speaking world. CLIE will focus efforts on the production of academic books, increase the number of titles available and speedy access to important works."

CLIE's current catalog features more than 200 products, and the company will resurrect some of the 2,000 titles that have been archived.

Beverly Lewis' three titles from the "Home to Hickory Hollow" series (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group) ranked high on the Fiction best-sellers from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), tracking sales for the week ending April 13, according to Pubtrack Christian data.

The Top 20 General best-sellers were: 1. Jesus Calling, Sarah Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); 2. Heaven Is for Real, Todd Burpo (Thomas Nelson); 3. The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman (Northfield Publishing/Moody Publishers); 4. The Guardian, "Home to Hickory Hollow" No. 3, Lewis (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 5. Jesus Calling, Young, large print deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 6. Jesus Calling, Young, deluxe (Thomas Nelson); 7. Daily Devotions for Women, Jewell Johnson (Barbour Publishing); 8. The Harbinger, Jonathan Cahn (FrontLine/Charisma House Book Group); 9. One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp (Zondervan); 10. Making Good Habits, Breaking Bad Habits, Joyce Meyer (FaithWords); 11. Jesus Calling, Young, women's edition (Thomas Nelson); 12. Jesus Today, Young, hardcover (Thomas Nelson); 13. Follow Me, David Platt (Tyndale House Publishers); 14. The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson (Zondervan); 15. Love Does, Bob Goff (Thomas Nelson); 16. Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman (Zondervan); 17. The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren (Zondervan); 18. Battlefield of the Mind, Joyce Meyer (FaithWords); 19. Your First Step to Celebrate Recovery, John Baker (Zondervan); and 20. The Chance, Karen Kingsbury (Howard Books).

The Top 10 Fiction best-sellers were: 1. The Guardian; 2. The Harbinger; 3. The Chance; 4. Damascus Countdown, "The Twelfth Imam" No. 3, Joel C. Rosenberg (Tyndale); 5. The Icecutter's Daughter, "Land of Shining Water" No. 1, Tracie Peterson (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); 6. The Winnowing Season, "Amish Vines and Orchards" No. 2, Cindy Woodsmall (WaterBrook Press); 7. When Jesus Wept, "The Jerusalem Chronicles" No. 1, Bodie and Brock Thoene (Zondervan); 8. Truth-Stained Lies, "Moonlighter" No. 1, Terri Blackstock (Zondervan); 9. Bridesmaid, "Home to Hickory Hollow" No. 2, Lewis (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group); and 10. The Fiddler, "Home to Hickory Hollow" No. 1, Lewis (Bethany House/Baker Publishing Group).

The top five Bibles were: 1. The Story, NIV, deluxe, hardcover, New International Version (Zondervan); 2. NKJV Start! Study Bible, red, New King James Version (Thomas Nelson); 3. NIV Thinline Bible, blue bonded leather (Zondervan); 4. NLT God Sightings, softcover, New Living Translation (Tyndale); and 5. ESV Study Bible, burgundy bonded leather, English Standard Version (Crossway).

The Gospel Music Association (GMA) has announced balloting changes for its 44th Annual GMA Dove Awards, www.doveawards.com, which is taking place in the fall for the first time.

The association's marquee event will be held Oct. 15 at Allen Arena on the campus of Nashville's historic Lipscomb University, and will be nationally televised on GMC TV.

In a letter sent to association members and posted on the organization's website, GMA Executive Director Jackie Patillo wrote about "the most notable changes," including the addition of three new categories to Dove Awards' division one: Contemporary Christian Performance of the Year; Southern Gospel Performance of the Year; and Gospel Performance of the Year.

GMA has also added an Inspirational Film of the Year category to the awards in response to the rise of faith-based films.

"In an effort to place increased emphasis on our musical genres and broaden inclusion as well as meet industry standards, the following categories have been removed: Male Artist of the Year; Female Artist of the Year; Group of the Year," Patillo wrote.

Additionally, several categories have been combined due to a lack of submissions.

Urban Recorded Song of the Year, Contemporary Gospel Recorded Song of the Year have been merged to create Contemporary Gospel/Urban Recorded Song of the Year. Urban Album of the Year and Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year have also been merged to create Contemporary Gospel/Urban Album of the Year.

The Artist of the Year category has also been revised to include artists on the first-round ballot who are top 20, highest-selling artists, according to SoundScan plus TEA (track equivalent album) sales.

"While we know that these categories and processes will continue to evolve over the coming years, our greater goal is to create an excellent event that celebrates community and brings awareness to the hope that we possess," Patillo wrote.

Dove nominees are scheduled to be announced Aug. 22. The event's hosts and performers as well as Dove-related events will be announced in the coming months.

GMA moved the Dove Awards back to Nashville after a two-year run in Atlanta, and switched the event from April to October.

Visit www.gospelmusic.org to learn more about the changes.

InterVarsity Press (IVP) has re-signed with Noble Marketing Group for representation to expand its reach to more Christian retailers and academic bookstores.

IVP was represented by Noble Marketing for more than eight years until 2011, when Jeff Crosby, InterVarsity's associate publisher and director of sales and marketing, launched an in-sourced sales model for the publisher for the first time since the mid-1980s.

With the decline in the number of Christian and academic retail outlets, the plan was designed to have more direct contact with retailers in an effort "to bring a sharper focus" on IVP's publishing program, company officials said.

"When we made the decision to test the in-sourced sales model in August 2011, Noble Marketing President Ted Terry and I agreed that the doors would remain open, both on the IVP and the Noble side of the equation, to work together again," Crosby said. "We learned a great deal during the 16 months of our experimental in-sourced sales paradigm.

"Even with the decline in the number of retail outlets, we found that our coverage was not as broad or as effective as what Ted Terry and the other members of the Noble Marketing Group afford their client publishers," Crosby added. "I'm delighted to once again be working with the Noble team, and I look forward to the fruitful years of partnership ahead of us."

Terry added: "We missed representing [IVP's] titles over the past 16 months. I'm grateful that Jeff Crosby and the IVP team once again have placed their faith in Noble Marketing to do the job."