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Running Faster Than Ever After 25 Years
John F. Baker -- 1/5/98
Running Press has the unusual distinction of being the only trade publisher in Philadelphia. It is also, at 25 years old, a considerable success story, with annual sales at around the $50-million mark, and a targeted annual growth of 15%, which publisher Buz Teacher said will be "notably exceeded" this year.The publisher, which was begun by Buz and his brother Lawrence in late 1972 in a spare room above Lawrence's bookstore (they stored their first books in the basement) now occupies a handsome historic landmark townhouse in downtown Philadelphia, has its own 150,000-square-foot modern distribution center three miles away, and recently opened an office in London. It employs about 100 people, and is increasing its title output to more than 200 titles a year.
Those titles are divided into three lines: the main Running Press line, mostly heavily illustrated books in categories like self-help, how-to, food and wine, gift books, children's and photo essays; Miniature Editions, a format that Running Press began in 1989, and for which it has a number of valuable licenses, including Disney; and Courage Books, a promotional line. It was from this line that its latest bestseller, Diana: A Tribute to the People's Princess appeared last fall; it sold more than 700,000 copies.

Teacher is particularly fond of the miniatures, ingeniously created objects only two inches square, many of which include meticulously constructed pop-ups, and are now published in several languages. "We started them because booksellers told us children were always attracted to very small books. Now they're popular in gift stores, too, which is an important part of the market for us, and booksellers love them." So far more than 20 million have been sold, and the series is doing so well that Teacher is seeking a brand manager to oversee every aspect of the line and make it truly free-standing.

"We're backlist oriented here, we think in series," Teacher added, and noted that when he launched miniatures on the English market recently, he began with titles on cricket, Cockney slang and the like.

About a third of the general line consists of children's titles, many of them novelty packages, such as a voodoo pack, a mummy package, a Brain Pack (by the creator of Knopf's Art Pack and Music Pack), even a "Make Your Own Book" set. The only fiction Running Press publishes is in the children's line.

Bestselling 'Sisters'

The company's biggest bestseller, of course, was Sisters, a 1995 photographic essay that stayed on the bestseller lists for more than a year, and, acknowledged Teacher, took Running thoroughly by surprise. "We bought it for not very much at what we thought was an auction, but one where we turned out to be the only bidder," he said. The publisher began by printing 35,000-40,000 copies, then saw it rack up well over a million sales; it still sells 25,000-30,000 copies a year as backlist. Strong hopes are held, too, for next spring's 25th-anniversary edition of Marlo Thomas's early-1970s bestseller Free To Be... You and Me, for which an unusually large first printing of 75,000 is planned. Photo-essays can be controversial: there are tenderly graphic new ones on gay male couples and on women survivors of HIV.

Running has an unusually pragmatic approach to sales. Every first printing is based on what the sales department thinks it can sell, with a laydown of at least 70% of the printing, and the whole printing projected to sell out in five months or less. It expects to turn its stock three times a year; returns, currently at around 13%, have never exceeded 15% claimed Teacher. There is daily flash reporting on all titles. "We know at all times what's selling where," said Teacher, but Running hopes for even closer scrutiny with the aid of new systems that will soon be insalled at the warehouse.

This is an unusual plus for an urban publisher: a large shipping and distribution center with extensive space for back-office functions, within a short drive of the art and editorial offices downtown. When PW visited, the staff was getting ready for their sales meeting-there is now a dedicated sales force, recruited less than a year ago after 24 years of working with commissioned reps. Running is also busy hiring: Carlo DeVito, the new associate publisher for sales &marketing, came aboard recently, as did a high-profile publicity director, Justin L ber, a veteran of several New York houses.

As a family-owned company (Lawrence retired three years ago), Running Press has received a number of offers, but Teacher vows he will never sell. As for a successor, Teacher noted that his 17-year-old son, Matt, has been going to the ABA shows "since he was a kid," and seems interested in the business. The secret to Running Press's success is simple, according to Teacher: "Create books people want to buy, and price them as low as you can."
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