Restructuring of Publishing Houses Possible

The General Conference has announced that a restructuring of the North American Division’s publishing houses is being considered. Under the new plan, the Review & Herald Publishing Association in Hagerstown, Maryland, and the Pacific Press Publishing Association in Nampa, Idaho, would continue as two separate publishing entities, but one would be attached to the General Conference and would no longer operate printing and production facilities. The other would serve the North American Division, and would house the printing and production facilities for both publishers.

This week’s announcement is the latest in a series of announcements as the General Conference tries to stem the publishing houses’ financial losses and find a way to make church publishing more efficient. 

In June 2013, the General Conference and North American Division asked the boards of the two publishing houses to consider a merger. A taskforce was created to consider the proposal. In July 2013, the taskforce recommended that the publishing houses not merge, and so the proposal was dropped. 

But since then, financial losses have continued. Thus the latest proposal for a restructuring has been brought to the table.

The General Conference has reported that “both boards have responded positively. Within the next few weeks the specific details of a restructuring plan will be completed and submitted to the boards for their response.”

Read the complete April 25, 2014, press release from the General Conference here.

See last year’s analysis by Tompaul Wheeler here.

Read about the merger proposal here.

Read about the end of the merger talks here.