Crown Publishing has announced a significant reorganization of its Christian publishing operations in advance of the impending retirement of Steve Cobb, president and publisher of WaterBrook Multnomah.

Cobb, Crown said on Tuesday, will retire in March 2015, departing from the company's evangelical Christian publishing division based in Colorado Springs, Colo.

One of the founding executives of WaterBrook in 1996, Cobb helped launch the imprint as an autonomous publishing division of then Bantam Doubleday Dell. In 2000, Cobb spearheaded the purchase of Harold Shaw Publishers; in 2006 he led the acquisition of Multnomah Publishers. In 2005, when a reorganization folded the Doubleday Religious division, Cobb took on leadership of Doubleday’s Catholic imprint, Image Books. Cobb launched the Convergent Books imprint in 2012 to publish more progressive Christian books.

Effective December 1, Alexander Field has been appointed to the newly created position of v-p, publisher of WaterBrook Multnomah, reporting to Tina Constable, senior v-p and publisher of Christian publishing for the Crown Publishing Group. Newly reporting directly to Field in the Colorado Springs offices will be editorial, marketing and publicity, and operations. As a result, the position of v-p, editor-in-chief of WaterBrook Multnomah has been eliminated, and Kenneth Petersen will leave the company at the end of November.

The Convergent Books imprint is moving to Crown’s New York City offices in January 2015 and will be under the editorial leadership of David Kopp, in the new position of v-p, executive editor of Convergent Books, reporting to Constable. Gary Jansen, senior editor, will take on acquisitions for Convergent along with his current acquisitions role for Image Books. Jansen will report to Constable, with a secondary report to Field. Image Books also will now report to Constable, with no operational or staffing changes.

Campbell Wharton, associate publisher of Crown Business and Crown Forum, will add those duties for Convergent, continuing to report to Constable. Marketing and publicity for Convergent will be handled out of New York under v-p, executive director of marketing Donna Passannante and Carisa Hays, v-p, executive director of publicity.

The move of Convergent Books to New York distances it from WaterBrook Multnomah, which in May drew conservative evangelical fire for the publication of Matthew Vines’s God and the Gay Christian under the Convergent imprint. Critics argued there was essentially no distinction between WaterBrook and Convergent, since both were headquartered in Colorado Springs shared leadership and editorial staff.

In a statement, Constable said, “Convergent Books is focused on the interests of progressive Christians who are redefining their faith through the prism of contemporary experience and has a mission that is distinctive yet complementary to WaterBrook and Multnomah. In the months ahead, we will be looking to grow Convergent as a home for leading author voices who can reach a broad audience with faith-informed content.”