NASHVILLE

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Today, Ingram Content Group announced the launch of its new accelerator program, 1440, named for the year Johannes Gutenberg perfected his printing press technology. Built on the belief that publishing innovation has the power to change the world, 1440 aims to find and accelerate startups creating the next breakthrough innovations in the publishing industry.

In the last decade, Ingram Content Group has transformed from a book supplier to a technology services company that distributes physical and digital texts and prints on demand.

Despite growing interest in its digital products, Ingram President and Chief Operating Officer Shawn Morin says physical books are not going away anytime soon.

"We really believe print is going to be here to stay," Morin said. "I still think there will be a place for both."

Kobo Revenues Up 44% in 2013, Userbase up 50% (The Digital Reader) Amazon might not be releasing any interesting details about Kindle Store sales in 2013, but luckily for us Rakuten is more generous. This international retail conglomerate held their annual stockholders meeting on Friday, and they released a few details about Kobo. *** Nashville’s [...]

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Brian Dauphin, Senior Vice President of Ingram Content Group, will become the company's Chief Financial Officer on July 1, reporting to CEO John R. Ingram. Mr. Dauphin will succeed Frank A. Kerrigan, who has served as Ingram's CFO since 1996.

Mr. Kerrigan has announced his intent to retire next year. Effective July 1, he will become Senior Vice President, for a transition period.

HarperCollins Publishers has put a 277,000-square-foot distribution center up for sale about a year after buying it as part of its purchase of Nashville-based religious publisher Thomas Nelson. The distribution center is expected to be shut down by next spring, idling 102 employees. An additional 248 employees with HarperCollins Christian Publishing, which includes Thomas Nelson, will stay at that unit's headquarters in an adjacent building. Last fall, HarperCollins announced plans to close its last two U.S. distribution centers, including the one at 565 Royal Parkway in Nashville,

HarperCollins Christian Publishing won a total of nine 2013 Christian Retailing's Best Awards at this year's annual International Christian Retailing Sales conference in St. Louis, Mo. 

In the Bible category, the Company was honored with three of the four awards: "Story for Children Bible" in the NIrV translation (Zondervan) in Children's; "NIV Women's Devotional Bible" (Zondervan) in Devotional/Study; and "Extreme Teen Study Bible" (Thomas Nelson) in Teen.

"It is an honor to have three Bibles published by Zondervan and Thomas Nelson receive Christian Retailing's Best Awards," said Chip Brown, senior vice president and publisher for the Bible team. "We strive to provide resources that inspire Christians everywhere and assist them in their daily study of God's Word. It is truly humbling to have so many resources recognized by our industry."