wfn.org | Publishing Corporation Mulls Strategic Planning Initiative

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

Reply-To: wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>
17-September-1998 
98296 
    Publishing Corporation Mulls 
     Strategic Planning Initiative 
 
    by Julian Shipp 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-Vying for its share of the publishing market in addition to 
being mandated by the General Assembly to develop and implement a 
comprehensive strategy for growth, the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation 
(PPC) board of directors discussed such a plan during its Sept. 1-2 meeting 
here. 
 
    Board members met in closed session for the report discussions and no 
action regarding the plan was taken by the board. However, Davis Perkins, 
PPC president and publisher, told PPC staff at the start of the meeting 
that sound strategic planning is paramount to the corporation's survival, 
since strong "Presbyterian Hymnal" product line sales - the corporation's 
longtime cash cow - will not support PPC indefinitely. 
 
    According to Doug Deatz, PPC's vice president for congregational 
resources, the  "Hymnal" product line contains a variety of merchandise, 
including the 1990 "Presbyterian Hymnal," the Electronic Version of the 
Hymnal (a CD-ROM that PPC introduced last year), the upcoming "Lift Up Your 
Hearts" supplement, the "El Himnario" (the Spanish version), the Hymnal 
Concordance and Hymnal Companion. 
 
    According to PPC officials, year-to-date sales through July for the 
"Hymnal" product line total $661,000, surpassing the 1998 expected sales of 
$493,000. As of July, year-to-date "Hymnal" sales were 34 percent over 
budget and 16 percent over last year. PPC's year-to-date net sales are 
approximately $5 million, 4 percent over the 1998 budget of $4.8 million 
and 4.6 percent over last year. 
 
    However, Deatz said, "Presbyterian Hymnal" sales included within the 
corporation's totals have been on a modest annual decline since 1992 (when 
PPC sold about $1.7 million worth of hymnals), declining to 1995 at $1.1 
million and projected to fall by 1999 to $0.7 million. 
 
    "We have no crystal ball, but we fully expect that pattern to continue, 
which would suggest sales of $0.3 million or less by 2001 or 2002," Deatz 
told the Presbyterian News Service.  "This downward curve is not at all 
unexpected," he said. "All books have life cycles that eventually are 
downward curves." 
 
    Deatz said that while PPC continues to be "very pleased" with robust 
"Presbyterian Hymnal" sales and feels they properly reflect the "high 
quality of the resource and its broad acceptance," PPC will continue to 
participate in the development and publication of new worship and music 
resources such as "El Himnario" and "Lift Up Your Hearts," a hymnal Perkins 
said contains "the best in contemporary Christian music as filtered through 
the lens of Reformed theology and liturgical practice." A sampler was 
produced for the General Assembly this year and publication is scheduled 
for spring 1999. 
 
    According to Perkins, strategic planning is an ongoing activity and the 
final plan that PPC formulates during the next couple of months will be 
revised annually. Within the next two months he said, PPC will incorporate 
projected expenses to implement the plan into the corporation's 1999 budget 
and produce a multiyear budget forecast that correlates future expenses 
with projected sales revenue. 
 
    One area of the corporation's budget that will likely need attention is 
marketing. As of July, PPC had spent $3,039,000 of its budgeted $3,291,000 
in cost center (overhead) expenses, which includes salaries, promotions, 
and testing and evaluation of new and existing products. Perkins told the 
Presbyterian News Service that PPC expects to spend most, if not all, of 
the full amount of funds budgeted for marketing this year and still achieve 
a break-even bottom line. 
 
    "We won't wrap up the marketing budget for next year until the Nov. 2 
board meeting," Perkins said. "We've only now made the first pass, but now 
we need to quantify some of the expense items associated with implementing 
our strategic plan." 
 
    Perkins said PPC will also develop action plans to guide the 
corporation into implementing the strategic plans, which have a host of 
different time lines. The overall time frame for the strategic plans is 
three to five years, with one objective not scheduled to be realized until 
2003. 
 
    While specifics of the plan have yet to emerge due to pending meetings 
and decisions by the PPC board, Westminster John Knox Press is planning to 
grow sales revenue in the coming years based upon particular strategic 
initiatives relating to academic and general trade publishing.  

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This note sent by PCUSA NEWS
  to the wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>.
  Send unsubscribe requests to wfn-news-request@wfn.org