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21-Mar-96

96107            Publishing Corporation  Reports 
                   1995 Net Income  of $927,000 
 
                         by Julian Shipp 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Although the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation (PPC) 
continues to sail in rough financial seas, the corporation ended 1995 with 
a net income of  $927,000, according to PPC officials. 
 
     Davis Perkins, PPC president and publisher, reported on the 
corporation's 1995 financial status during the PPC board of directors 
meeting March 12. 
 
      1995 marked PPC's second full year of operations. Reporting to the 
General Assembly Council (GAC) on Feb. 24, Price H. Gwynn III of Charlotte, 
N.C., PPC board chair, said it was a year of "consolidation, improvement, 
innovation and success." 
 
     "1995 is our best year for publications in the modern era, and that 
era started with [the June 10, 1983] reunion," Gwynn said. 
 
     Gwynn described PPC's 1995 Westminister John Knox Press book sales as 
"healthy" and said joint efforts between the Congregational Ministries 
Division (CMD)'s curriculum development staff and PPC have resulted in a 
soon-to-be third printing of General Assembly moderator Marj Carpenter's 
book "To the Ends of the Earth." 
 
     The book became available hours after Carpenter's election last year 
at the 207th General Assembly (1995) in Cincinnati.   More than 7,500 
copies of the book have been sold to date. 
 
     Gwynn said "These Days," a daily devotional series, has been 
repositioned in the marketplace and is now generating "healthy revenue." 
 
     Gwynn said he also continues to be surprised by the strength of 
"Presbyterian Hymnal" sales, which were $1.2 million in 1995, and that PPC 
is developing a prototype CD-ROM version of the hymnal that it hopes to 
demonstrate at this year's Assembly in Albuquerque, N.M. 
 
     Gwynn said an electronic version of  "The Book of Common Worship" has 
also been well received and that PPC has sold either the Macintosh or 
Windows edition of the book to more than 10 percent of PC(USA) 
congregations.    
 
     Gwynn described the PPC/Cokesbury partnership as a "delight," adding 
that Cokesbury sales are more than double those of the United Methodist 
retail chain in the previous year. Gwynn said Cokesbury has sold more than 
$32,000 worth of Presbyterian Seal products to non-Presbyterians. Perkins 
said Cokesbury has more than doubled existing sales to Presbyterian 
customers from 1994 to 1995. 
 
     But despite PPC's good news, there is still much reason for concern 
among church leaders. PPC and GAC/CMD officials agree that the curriculum 
partnership between PPC and CMD is problematic. For instance, Perkins said, 
the CMD's 1995 portion of the Presbyterian and Reformed Educational 
Ministries (PREM) deficit is $82,975 and that, based on the current 
declining sales pattern, PPC is projecting a loss for curriculum of 
$637,000 in 1996 and $987,000 in 1997. 
      
     To help remedy the situation, the GAC has approved the hiring of a 
consultant to work with PPC's board of directors and the CMD Committee to 
find a solution to problems in the two entities' partnership arrangement to 
develop, produce and distribute curriculum (see "NEWS BRIEFS,"  March 15, 
1996,  #96094). 
 
     The consultant's findings and recommendations will be brought to the 
PPC board and to the GAC through the CMD Committee no later than June 1, 
1996. 

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  Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Louisville, KY 40202
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