Church Publishing Launches Strategic Expansion
Episcopal News Service. April 4, 2003 [2003-074-2]
After nine months of exploration, Church Publishing Inc. is announcing plans for an expansion. 'The committee has come to the conviction that our church both needs and deserves a sound and imaginative publishing house,' said Bishop Hays Rockwell, head of the strategic planning committee and recently appointed chair of CPI's board of directors. 'Our new strategic direction will enable us to use our understanding of the needs of the broader populations of the church to reach hundreds of thousands of Episcopalians--clergy, lay leaders, and the people in the pews.'
In addition to printed books, the expanded strategic plan calls for use of new technologies, such as Web site downloading and electronic subscriptions. The plan also calls for including new authors. 'It will be our aim to acquire authors in our American church and from around the Anglican Communion,' said Rockwell, the retired bishop of Missouri. 'Our list will include books about history, theology, liturgy, music, art. We want to reach a broad cross-section of our church's membership and beyond.'
The new plan also includes the search for a new publisher. 'We are now embarked on a search for a publisher who can bring vision and energy to this new expansion,' said Rockwell. 'The world is changing and Church Publishing is changing with it,' added Alan F. Blanchard, president of the Church Pension Fund which includes CPI. 'In coming years a printed copy of the Book of Common Prayer or the 1982 Hymnal will be just one among many formats. People will also be able to download these books, chapter by chapter, hymn by hymn, from the Church Publishing Web site, or print them out as pamphlets. It's an exciting time.'