Grand Rapids, Mich.

HarperCollins' new Christian division, comprised of Zondervan and the newly acquired Thomas Nelson, has announced the creation of a single fiction team, featuring books from both publishers and headed by Daisy Hutton, formerly vice president and publisher of fiction at Thomas Nelson.

"This is an era of unprecedented challenge and opportunity for fiction publishing," Hutton said. "The Thomas Nelson and Zondervan brands each have a rich heritage. We intend to build on that heritage by developing more distinctive, stronger identities for each brand."

Today, HarperCollins has announced that, in the wake of its acquisition of Christian publisher Thomas Nelson, it has formed a new Christian publishing division. The business unit will include both Thomas Nelson, the Nashville-based outfit with roots that date back to 1798 Edinburgh, Scotland, and Zondervan, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based house that was already in HarperCollins' portfolio.

Zondervan has announced a collaboration between Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and New York Times best-selling author and illustrator, Nancy Tillman. The pair has signed on to create a unique picture book based on the creation story from Tutu's highly successful Children of God Storybook Bible.

The picture book will feature Nancy Tillman's whimsical and imaginative illustrations bringing to life Archbishop Tutu's heartwarming narration about God's wonderful creation. Zondervan holds world rights to the project and plans to release the premium picture book in Spring 2014.

Zondervan has announced plans to honor Chuck Colson’s legacy by donating a portion of the proceeds from Colson’s titles published with Zondervan to Prison Fellowship Ministries. These contributions are above and beyond author royalties that already go to the Colson estate. Through all his accomplishments as an author and Christian leader, Colson never lost focus on his passion for helping inmates. He founded Prison Fellowship Ministries in 1976, and today the ministry reaches prisoners, ex-prisoners and families of prisoners throughout the United States and, through Prison Fellowship International (PFI), in 115 countries worldwide.

While the glitter and flash of ebooks, e-readers and tablets get all the mainstream media attention—and pundits predict the end of printed books—traditional printed volumes still represent enormous opportunity for print providers. According to Caslon & Company, monochrome books will account for up to 85 billion pages through 2016 and color books are expected to make up some 15 billion pages in the same period. Little wonder that savvy print providers are adding capabilities, technology and workflows to carve out a presence in this burgeoning market.

Maybe divine intervention will reverse the profit slide for religious book publishers. But industry experts believe it also would be prudent to consider scaling back on titles, reducing returns, making intelligent use of data, investing in digital opportunities and otherwise adapting business models for future success.