Comment from www.tennessean.com

It’s not just the economy that has affected this firm. I have many friends who have worked for BSSB/LifeWay over the years. A decision was taken in the early 1990′s to walk away from its distinctive Baptist identity (the renaming from Baptist Sunday School Board to LifeWay), and identify itself as a generic provider of product to the evangelical marketplace. It abandoned its core loyal following in the attempt to to chase after a market it did not know, and which did not know it after it attempted to change its identity. This approach proved unsuccessful, to state it mildly.

Several reorganizations followed, consolidations and downsizings, as it attempted to recover from this blunder. Amongst the executives fired was the guy who susequently oversaw the marketing of one of the best selling books of the past twenty years, in any market. He had attempted to place the book at Lifeway, and they would have none of it.

Economies go through cycles, and we’re definitely heading through the down cycle just now. But this firm’s woes run much deeper.

Let’s wish them well, and hope they get their legs back under them.
8/2/2008 8:57:20 PM