RHPA BOARD VOTES SMALLER, LEANER PROFILE FOR PUBLISHING HOUSE

Workflow and personnel changes to save $1.5 million within a year.

Story by Adventist Review Staff

The Board of Directors of the Review and Herald Publishing Association (RHPA) in Hagerstown, Md., moved swiftly Sunday, April 6, to stabilize the financial health of the 165-year old publishing house at a specially-called executive session after year-end reports showed a nearly $943,000 loss for 2013 and continued weakness in the first quarter of the current year. RHPA Board chair Delbert Baker said that the directors were responding to recommendations from management, executive and finance committees, calling for quick and efficient action to turn around the finances of the Seventh-day Adventist Church's oldest institution.

Key items voted by the RHPA Board included streamlining production processes to eliminate redundancies in several departments of the publishing house; reducing the number of book titles planned for release in 2015; and trimming the editorial and production staff of some RHPA-produced journals. A reduction-in-force of 26 current employees was also authorized by the Board of Directors, with nearly half of the total being achieved through collaborative retirement agreements with eligible employees. The savings to the publishing house from the workforce reductions are anticipated to reach $1 million in 2014, and more than $1.5 million in 2015.