Publishing House Faces Management Shift

Review and Herald Publishing Association

The Review and Herald Publishing Association (RHPA), the 161-year-old book-and-magazine publishing arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is reorganizing its management team, officials said April 29, 2010. The moves follow years of mounting financial losses and a desire to see a change in the organization’s leadership, the unit’s board of directors said.

RHPA president Dr. Robert S. Smith, who has held that position since 2000, and vice president/finance Hepsiba S. Singh, a long-time RHPA employee, will each retire effective July 1, 2010, although Smith’s active leadership ended today. RHPA Graphics vice president Mark B. Thomas has been named interim president, directors said. Two other RHPA executives have also concluded their service: Mario P. Martinelli, vice president for books and subscription literature, and Richard A. Tooley, vice president for periodicals.

The RHPA Board requested that the leadership of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists form a committee to recommend a permanent president, and look at the possibility of structural and policy changes for the unit. "This reorganization will move the operation in a new direction that will ensure its continued mission. The rapid technological advances in the way people communicate and access print information, particularly in the younger generation, has necessitated a re-evaluation about how this Seventh-day Adventist publishing house needs to function for the future."

Along with printing Adventist Review and Adventist World for North America and several other nations, RHPA publishes several other Adventist periodicals at its six-acre headquarters in northern Maryland: Guide; Insight; Insight Youth Resource Magazine; Kids' Ministry Ideas; LEAD; Listen; Message; Real; Vibrant Life; and Women of Spirit. The firm also prints the Cornerstone Connections Teacher's Guide; GraceLink Sabbath School Curriculum Bible Study Guides; GraceLink Sabbath School Curriculum Leader/Teacher Guides; Liberty magazine and Mission. It is the oldest Seventh-day Adventist publishing house, having been established by James White, a pioneering cofounder of the movement, in 1849 when he launched Present Truth, the magazine that became today’s Adventist Review.

For nearly 50 years, the RHPA’s business grew in its then-location of Battle Creek, Michigan. Following a 1902 fire, the organization, along with the leadership of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, relocated to Washington, D.C. In 1983, RHPA opened its Hagerstown, Maryland facility. The RHPA may be best known to tens of thousands of families across North America and around the world for its most famous product: the 10-volume Bible Story series for children. Written by Arthur Maxwell, it featured 1,200 full-colour illustrations, and heralded a new era of quality in Christian products.

The Review and Herald Publishing Association has nearly 200 employees in its workforce and reports an annual sales volume of $28 million. Additional information about RHPA can be found online at www.rhpa.org; information about the General Conference can be found at www.adventist.org.