RH Buys Multnomah
Random House has acquired the Christian book publisher Multnomah Publishers. Random will integrate Multnomah's Oregon operations with that of its existing Christian division WaterBrook Press, based in Colorado Springs, Colo. WaterBrook publisher Steve Cobb will oversee the combined division, which will be called WaterBrook Multnomah. Some Multnomah employees will be given the chance to move to Colorado. The purchase adds 600 titles to WaterBrook's list of 500.
RH Buys Out Korean Partner
Random House has also taken sole ownership of Random House JoongAng, the Korean joint venture operation formed in 2004 with JoonAng M&B Publishers. The company has been renamed Random House Korea and all current and backlist titles, as well as contractual commitments, will be assumed by RHK. Since its inception, RHK has published more than 2,500 titles.
Sales Up at Indigo
Indigo Books & Music said sales increased across the board for its first quarter ending July 1, 2006. Comparable-store sales for both superstores and small-format stores increased 4.5%, while online sales grew 7.2%, to C$16.3 million. Total revenue increased 3.8%, to C$170.4 million ($150 million) and loss was cut from C$8.1 million in 2005 to C$5.8 million in 2006.
Berean Bought
JMH Capital, a Boston private equity firm, has acquired the 16-store Christian retailer Berean Christian Stores, in partnership with Berean management. Les Dietzman will continue to head the retailer.
Wicker Joins Klopotek
John Wicker, former executive v-p of sales and marketing for Vista International, has joined Klopotek as head of its North American operations. The German-based company, a provider of management software and other services, is looking to expand in the U.S.
New HC Browse Option
HarperCollins has launched a browsing feature on its Web site that allows consumers to digitally search HC titles. The feature is currently available for a selected group of frontlist authors, but HC plans eventually to add all of its titles to the program. HC is also looking to offer the option on author sites, in newsletters and on booksellers' Web sites. For now, consumers will not be able to buy titles directly from the HC site.
The publisher has also unveiled a "digital media café" that allows users to sample free and paid streaming video and audio. Through partner iAmplify, which provides the technology for the program, users can access streaming content from harper-collins.com, iAmplify.com (which is a retail site) and other partner sites.
Corrections
In last week's Foreword story "Publishers Start Selling the Green Lifestyle," we gave an incorrect pub date for Worldchanging(Abrams); the book will be out in November. Last week's "Books Out of Africa" story incorrectly described Unconfessed author Yvette Christiansë as "a white woman born in South Africa under apartheid." Christiansë is black.
