I’m tired of the relentless torrent of bad news coming from the media. I feel like I am stuck in a recession version of Ground Hog Day. The names and places change with each story, but underneath the veneer, it’s the same story-line:

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Today, was a very difficult day at Thomas Nelson. We informed fifty-four of our friends and co-workers (about 10% of our workforce) that we have eliminated their jobs, effective this Friday. This will affect nearly every department in our company.

This was the second round of reductions this year. Unfortunately, this one was no less painful. We did the first round after significantly cutting our SKU count. However, this second round was purely a result of the slowdown in the economy. Continue Reading

If you want more bad news, then don’t read this post. But if you are tired of reading about bailouts, bankruptcies, and poor earnings, keep reading.

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Thankfully, the election is over. We now have clarity about who is going to lead our country for the next four years. I have never personally witnessed such excitement and hopefulness following an election (though I acknowledge that not everyone shared that sentiment).

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I watched in amazement this week as the stock market continued its downward slide. Every time I checked the news, I braced myself for increasingly dire reports. When the market finally closed on Friday afternoon, I breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that the DOW did not end below 8,000 points.

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In the Western literary tradition, the silver bullet was the only weapon that could destroy certain types of monsters. As a result, it became a metaphor for a singular solution that solves a giant problem.

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I watched MTVs VMA awards last night. Some of my daughters’ friends are in the band Paramore, and they were nominated for an award. And—to be honest—I wanted to see how Britney Spears would do, since we are publishing her mom’s book next week.

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When Apple introduced the original iPhone last summer, it was a complete WOW experience. People expected a new phone, but their expectations were shaped entirely by their previous experiences with cell phones. As a result, Apple exceeded the market’s expectations. The company reinvented the cell phone and WOWed the market.

Among other things, Apple redefined voice mail and Web browsing on a mobile device. The company married a phone to an iPod and threw in an amazing touch-screen interface to boot. The device has proven so popular that Apple has sold five million phones in the last year.

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It’s been more than a year since I updated our list of the Top Ten Publishers in America. Because of some changes in the available point-of-sale data, we were not able to get create a reliable ranking. However, we have seen an improvement in recent months. It’s not perfect, but we do believe it represents the best data currently available.

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I hear publishers and booksellers complaining all the time about how bad the book publishing industry is. Gas prices are up. Retail traffic is down. Books are simply not moving. One pundit remarked, “Flat is the new up.” Evidently, Dwight Baker and his team at Baker Publishing Group didn’t get the memo.

For the fiscal year ending April 30, 2008, Baker reported sales up 16% to $57.9. Yes, they had a huge hit with 90 Minutes in Heaven, but, according to Dwight, their sales growth was “much more comprehensive” than this one title. In fact, the company experienced growth in all divisions: Revell was up 26%; Chosen, 25%; Baker Books, 15%; Baker Academic, 13%; Brazos, 10%, and Bethany House, 9%.

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