HarperCollins Christian Publishing is moving the Zondervan Books and Zondervan Thrive imprints from Grand Rapids, Mich., to HCCP’s corporate office in Nashville. The move, HCCP said, will allow it to share best practices across the company’s trade book publishing program for both the Thomas Nelson and Zondervan publishing groups.
“Creating a more cohesive structure for our trade book publishing imprints allows for us to manage our nonfiction brands under Don Jacobson’s leadership,” said Mark Schoenwald, president and CEO of HarperCollins Christian Publishing and HarperCollins Focus, in a statement. “We believe that having the Zondervan Books and Zondervan Thrive leadership in Nashville will help the teams better manage author relationships and allow them to collaborate on larger corporate initiatives.”
Zondervan Books is the flagship nonfiction imprint for the Zondervan publishing group, publishing approximately 50 titles per year. Zondervan Thrive launched in late 2019 as an imprint focused on personal development, health and wellness, self-care, marriage and family, abuse/trauma, anxiety, and personality typologies.
With the shift, Webster Younce has been named v-p and publisher of Zondervan Books and Zondervan Thrive. Younce has worked as the associate publisher and executive editor of Nelson Books for the past seven years, with oversight on all editorial processes. The second new member of the management team is Paul Fisher, who had previously been senior director of marketing for the Thomas Nelson and Zondervan fiction programs. Fisher has been appointed v-p of marketing for Zondervan Books and Zondervan Thrive.
With the appointments of Younce and Fisher, David Morris, v-p and publishers of Zondervan Books and Tom Dean, v-p of marketing, have left the company.Younce and Fisher are the only two members of Zondervan Books and Zondervan Thrive who will be based in Nashville. “We have been successful in the past with teams based in multiple locations and we believe this model will work for that team as well,” a spokesperson said. “However, we will continue to analyze the needs of our business and adjust when necessary.”
At this time, HCCP will continue to maintain an office in Grand Rapids, where other Zondervan brands are based. Those brands include Zondervan Academic, Zondervan Reflective, Zonderkidz, and the Zondervan Bible Group.
This story has been updated to include news of the departures of Morris and Dean.
