Two years after the U.K.-based Osprey Group acquired illustrated lifestyle press Duncan Baird Publishers and its mind, body, and spirit imprint, Watkins Publishing, DBP is readying for a change. With the release of Nicola Graimes’s Veggienomics on June 17, the press will shift its focus to healthy cooking titles and take a new name, Nourish. The press’s 535-title backlist will remain under the DBP name. But DBP’s previous food and drink titles will become Nourish books; spirituality titles will be rebranded Watkins.
According to Nourish publisher Grace Cheetham, who is also a DBP author—her Simply Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free was rereleased in paperback in April—the imprint will continue to publish 12 to 15 titles a year simultaneously in print and in e-books. The biggest difference, she sees, besides the emphasis on wholesome food and drink, is a new strategy to publish digital products and to create digital partnerships. A Juice app is due out shortly. Cheetham also notes that with the launch of Nourish, there will no longer be an occasional time lag between publication in the U.K. and U.S.; books will be published simultaneously on both sides of the pond.
If the imprint’s new name seems familiar, that’s because Nourish is also the title of a 2013 cookbook from DBP. “When we were thinking of a name for the brand,” says Cheetham, “that name kept staying in our minds as one that embodied everything we wanted our brand to be.” John Tintera, v-p of sales and publicity for Nourish agrees. “I love the name,” he says. “I think it really captures it.”
Chuck Errig, group sales director of Penguin Random House Publisher Services, which began representing DBP titles to the trade last fall, comments, “I feel it’s a great move on the publisher’s part to reorganize all their healthy lifestyle books under a new, clearly defined brand as this will help build consumer awareness. Their initiative in creating beautifully designed books that are appealing visually as well as content-wise will only help inspire consumer loyalty.”
To stimulate consumer excitement, Osprey launched a Nourish website in March. In addition to a blog and information on authors, the site sells Nourish books direct. Pricing is currently in pounds, but the shopping cart will be updated with U.S. dollars.
