08 July

HarperCollins Christian Publishing Aligns Sales and Marketing Operations Under Unified Leadership

Company names Doug Lockhart, SVP Sales and Centralized Marketing

(Nashville, Tenn.) July 8, 2021—HarperCollins Christian Publishing today announced its plan to join sales and centralized marketing operations under a unified leadership structure that better positions its retail partners to capitalize on the company’s best-in-class marketing resources. Doug Lockhart will lead this strategy for the company as senior v-p Sales and Centralized Marketing.

“The dramatic increase in online purchases over the last year has spurred brick-and-mortar and online retailers to invest heavily in digital marketing for their own tech platforms,” said president and CEO of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Mark Schoenwald. “This has strengthened people’s dependency on online shopping resources which creates an opportunity for our company to increase cross-functional collaboration within the digital marketing and retail merchandising space.”

In his expanded role, Lockhart will integrate marketing expertise more robustly into the company’s retail partner strategy for both the Christian division and HarperCollins Focus.

“Selling books has always been dependent on great marketing,” said Lockhart. “However, discovering new books and authors now almost always includes an overabundance of online resources. We are going to focus on sharing information between teams to improve the customer journey experience. We have developed an industry leading marketing operations team with expertise in analytics, metadata, SEO, social media, research, website development and email marketing. These teams will work together to maximize our author’s exposure at retail.”

Lockhart is an industry veteran with more than 11 years with the company. Most recently, serving as senior v-p of Marketing and Business Partnerships, Lockhart identified opportunities to expand the company’s reach in new and emerging markets, including the stewardship of the company’s co-publication and co-distribution partnership with Urban Ministries, Inc. Before joining Zondervan in 2002, he spent ten years building and leading a sales organization for a Johnson & Johnson company. He has led at an executive level for 18 years including six years as the president and CEO of Biblica. Lockhart rejoined HCCP in 2014 and has served in several leadership roles where consumer purchasing behavior and market trends were aligned with business strategy.

Schoenwald continued, “Doug is a well-rounded executive leader, with great relationships across the industry. He is one of the original architects for our centralized marketing operations and has since positioned talented leaders to grow our expertise in this rapidly changing discipline. As we seek to aggressively acquire new voices and publish life-changing content, this new alignment will be critical in our success.”

Contact:   Casey Harrell

                 VP, Corporate Communications

                 tel:   615.902.1109

                 web: [email protected]

07 January

Crystal Hardison named director of partner relationships for HarperCollins Christian Publishing

Hardison to lead HCCP’s partnership with Urban Ministries Inc.

Nashville, Tenn. (January 7, 2021)—HarperCollins Christian Publishing (HCCP) today announced Crystal Hardison as the director of partner relationships, specifically stewarding the organization’s partnership with Urban Ministries, Inc. (UMI).

As director of partner relationships Hardison will steward and maximize the HCCP and UMI partnership by serving as the key liaison between the two companies. She will work with all publishing imprints within HCCP to identify and leverage existing content that serves the UMI core audience, as well as identify new voices to acquire.  

“The partnership between HCCP and UMI is paramount to our work in acquiring and elevating African American voices,” remarked Doug Lockhart, senior v-p, marketing and new initiatives. “Crystal’s track record of building and maintaining strong partnerships make her the perfect person to steward our relationship with UMI, and I look forward to its development under her leadership.”

Hardison joins HCCP with eighteen years of experience in developing and maintaining partnerships in both commercial and not-for profit industries. She specializes in developing strategic partnerships for organizations to advance their mission and values while expanding their reach into new communities and business channels.

HarperCollins Christian Publishing

About HarperCollins Christian Publishing: The world’s leading Christian publisher, HarperCollins Christian Publishing Inc., comprises the Thomas Nelson and Zondervan publishing groups, BibleGateway.com, FaithGateway.com and ChurchSource.com.  The Company produces bestselling Bibles, inspirational books, academic resources, curriculum, audio and digital content for the Christian market space. HarperCollins Christian Publishing is headquartered in Nashville, TN with additional offices in the U.S. and Mexico.  For more information visit www.HarperCollinsChristian.com.  

Contact:    Chelsea Taff, Assistant Manager

                  Corporate Communications

                  tel:     615.902.2137

                  web:   [email protected]

19 November

Jerri Helms named v-p of digital marketing and analytics for HarperCollins Christian Publishing and HarperCollins Focus

Nashville, Tenn. (November 19, 2020)—HarperCollins Christian Publishing (HCCP) and HarperCollins Focus (HCF) today announced Jerri Helm’s promotion to v-p of digital marketing and analytics.

Helms has led digital marketing efforts in various roles for HCCP for more than 12 years. In 2013 she was named the senior director of digital marketing for the Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Bibles groups where she managed an email list of more than 2 million consumers, developed an engaged Facebook group of over 100,000, and implemented analytics, advertising, and metadata optimization strategies. In 2018 she was chosen to lead the newly formed Marketing Operations team, which acts as a centralized marketing consulting group for teams across HCCP and HCF. This team consults on best practices for email, search engine optimization (SEO), website development, analytics, and ad campaigns. Helms also sits on the SEO Global Counsel for HarperCollins’ parent company, NewsCorp.

As v-p of digital marketing and analytics, Helms will continue to lead the Marketing Operations team while also assuming responsibility for the Corporate Analytics team, which formulates data for publishing teams to help them sign, publish, and market the best possible products based on market research.

“Since Jerri joined the company in 2008, she has changed the landscape for how we market products,” said Doug Lockhart, senior v-p, marketing and new initiatives. “She is continually seeking data-driven solutions to drive our business forward, and I know she will do an excellent job in this new role.”  

HarperCollins Christian Publishing

About HarperCollins Christian Publishing: The world’s leading Christian publisher, HarperCollins Christian Publishing Inc., comprises the Thomas Nelson and Zondervan publishing groups, BibleGateway.com, FaithGateway.com and ChurchSource.com.  The Company produces bestselling Bibles, inspirational books, academic resources, curriculum, audio and digital content for the Christian market space.   Bible Gateway is the world’s largest Christian website with more than 20 million unique monthly visitors. HarperCollins Christian Publishing is headquartered in Nashville, TN with additional offices in the U.S. and Mexico.  For more information visit www.HarperCollinsChristian.com.  

HarperCollins Focus

HarperCollins Focus, LLC owns and operates a collection of publishing imprints, that enlighten and empower readers to transform their hearts and minds, connecting through story, advice, mentorship and community. The company is based in Nashville, TN. For more information visit www.HarperCollinsFocus.com.

Contact:    Chelsea Taff, Assistant Manager

                  Corporate Communications

                  tel:     615.902.2137

                  web:   [email protected]

01 February

HarperCollins Christian Publishing’s Bible Group expands publishing efforts and new initiatives

(Nashville, TN) February 1, 2018—Today HarperCollins Christian Publishing (HCCP) announced a few key promotions within the Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Bible publishing groups that reflect the company’s continued focus on the Bible.

John, Kramp, who joined HCCP in September 2014 as senior v-p of Bible Resources, has been named senior v-p and group publisher for Bibles. Additionally, Doug Lockhart who joined the company as senior v-p for Bible marketing and outreach in October 2014 has been named senior v-p for Bible marketing and new initiatives.  Lockhart came to HCCP from Biblica as president and CEO, owners of the New International Version translation of the Bible. Lockhart will continue to work with Kramp to lead Bible marketing, champion innovative strategies, and develop pivotal partnerships across the industry to enhance visibility for the New International Version (NIV), the King James Version (KJV), and the New King James Version (NKJV) translations.

For Zondervan Bibles, Melinda Bouma is being promoted to publisher. During her 10-plus year tenure with Zondervan Bibles, Bouma’s innovation, industry knowledge, and leadership have been essential to the success of the Zondervan Bible business. As publisher, she will build on her proven success of award winning product develop, acquisition, and publishing leadership by expanding the publishing portfolio of the NIV, the New American Standard Version (NASB), the Amplified Version (AMP) and other translations.

HCCP also announced the promotion of Daniel Marrs to publisher of Thomas Nelson Bibles. Marrs joined the Thomas Nelson Bible team in November 2015 as senior editor and was named associate publisher for the group in June 2016. With a strong theological background and editorial expertise, Marrs will lead the group as publisher, continuing to oversee acquisitions, author and title development, product ideation, and editorial development to grow the NKJV, KJV, and other translations.

About HarperCollins Christian Publishing: The world’s leading Christian publisher, HarperCollins Christian Publishing Inc., comprising both Thomas Nelson and Zondervan publishing groups and Olive Tree Bible Software. The Company produces bestselling Bibles, inspirational books, academic resources, curriculum, audio and digital content for the Christian market space. Also home to BibleGateway.com, the world’s largest Christian website, and FaithGateway.com, an online community dedicated to helping people grow in their faith. HarperCollins Christian Publishing is headquartered in Nashville, TN with additional offices in Grand Rapids, MI, Miami, FL and Spokane, WA. For more information visit www.HarperCollinsChristian.com.