Dwight Baker, President of Baker Publishing Group, Tells all about his company’s ongoing success in Christian publishing, including its current New York Times Best seller, and how it remains cutting-edge after 68 years in business.

By Jim Calder

Baker’s Eye Toward ‘Greener’ Publishing

Dwight Baker believes there is a direct connection with his company’s history in religious publishing and the need for being environmentally conscious. The Baker Publishing Group has been among the publishers leading the way by working with the nonprofit Green Press Initiative, an industry organization that helps book publishing industry constituents create paper-use transformations that will conserve natural resources and preserve endangered forests. The company is also cited on the Emergent Village Web site, EmergentVillage.org, as the only “green” Evangelical publisher in the United States.

To make its environmental goals a reality, the Baker Publishing Group tasked its primary printers with locating affordable and reliable sources of 30-percent post-consumer recycled paper.

“Our company began exploring recycled-paper options in 2003 and sadly discovered that this paper choice was more expensive and that pulp mills were unreliable. Four years later, we are now fully committed to using recycled paper and have observed that, well, this paper choice is still more expensive [for us] and that pulp mills remain unreliable,” Baker says. In spite of these limitations, the company remains committed to using recycled paper.

“We have prepared to transfer all our eligible nonfiction titles, new and reprints, to using recycled paper by the conclusion of this year. This quantity is slightly more than 50 percent of our 2007 title list,” he says.

“This is one area where our company cannot, in clear conscience, passively wait for others to solve the problem for us. An industry-wide transition to recycled paper is simply a matter of time,” Baker continues. “We will eventually consider our demand for virgin pulp as short-sighted and antiquated as, say, the unnecessary pollution practices of 40 years ago. When this transition is completed, the extra expense of recycled paper will diminish to insignificance. We don’t wish to look back at this period and realize that our company, a faith-based publisher, refused to recognize its responsibility toward creation stewardship.”

Baker recommends that publishers challenge their print suppliers to provide recycled-paper options.

“At our company, the printers who have responded and supported us on this issue have secured the bulk of our future business,” Baker says. “The more agile printers are now acting quickly to provide recycled-paper choices to catch up with this transition.”

Dwight Baker, president of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Baker Publishing Group—the third-largest publisher in the Evangelical Christian publishing market—arrived in his position from a different starting point than most publishing company presidents, and he’s using that fresh perspective to put his own personal spin on religious publishing. His approach seems to be working. The company’s annual sales in 2006 surpassed $50 million, four of its publishing divisions saw double-digit growth, and it has a current New York Times Best Seller on the market with 1.4 million copies sold.

The family business was founded in 1939 by Dwight’s grandfather, Herman Baker. When Dwight was a teenager, he worked part time at the business’s retail store. He began working as a graphic designer in the art department of the company’s publishing division while pursuing a fine arts degree in college. After graduation, he remained in that position for 14 years. When his father, then president, retired, Dwight stepped in to fill this challenging role, almost 10 years ago in August 1997.

“The art department is an unusual starting point toward larger executive responsibilities, but it does carry some distinctive advantages,” Baker says. “Most significantly, it trained my mind to function comfortably on instinct. While in the art department we could not, for instance, use hard data to effectively quantify a favorable response to a book cover. If a cover works well, it does so upon a mere glance and within a fraction of a second. With any cover image, we either react favorably or not; no verbal explanation is required or welcomed,” he explains. “After so many years of acting by intuition in the art department, my mind became accustomed to that environment.”

Twila Bennett, senior director of marketing for Revell, Baker Books and Chosen Books—all divisions of Baker Publishing Group—says Baker has grown into his role as president and has become one of the most respected presidents in the industry.

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