The Jim Henson Company recently ended its relationship with Chick-fil-A after the fast food chain’s CEO Dan Cathy told The Biblical Recorder that he does not support the legalization of gay marriage.

Since then, the chain has filled kid’s meal bags with picture books from The Berenstain Bear series. As controversy spread about Cathy’s stance, the Berenstain family posted an official statement.

UPDATE: 80,000 fans have signed a petition urging HarperCollins to end its relationship with the fast food chain.

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HarperCollins has released an enhanced eBook sampler of Michael Chabon’s new novel Telegraph Avenue. The excerpt is part of the enhanced eBook edition that the publisher will release on September 11th.

You can download the free sampler or check out an online version of the enhanced eBook sampler at this link.

AppNewser has more: “The enhanced edition includes an original video of Chabon talking about the book, a theme song for the book performed by The Wakanda Philharmonic Orchestra, and four extended excerpts of the audiobook with performances by Clarke Peters, the actor who stars in The Wire and Treme.”

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HarperCollins has closed its purchase of Christian publisher Thomas Nelson. The sale was first announced last October.

Thomas Nelson publishes many inspirational titles, including books by authors like Billy Graham, Max Lucado and Dave Ramsey.

The publisher issued a brief statement. Here is an excerpt: “Thomas Nelson will continue to operate as an independent company with its unique editorial focus on inspirational and Christian content. Details, such as how Thomas Nelson will benefit from HarperCollins global print and digital platform, will be forthcoming.”

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News Corp. confirmed rumors that the media company would be split into two entities, an entertainment business and a publishing business.

HarperCollins will join The Wall Street Journal and the Times of London in the publishing business. The Fox News Channel, the Fox broadcast network and 20th Century  Fox will become part of the entertainment division of the company.

In an internal memo that News Corp.’s chief Rupert Murdoch sent to employees, which was published by The Wall Street Journal, Murdoch writes: “Much of our foundation already exists — because of you. We have the creative minds. We have the assets. We have the brands. But we must realign and reorganize in this moment of opportunity so that we can heighten our focus and be faster, more nimble, and more adaptable to change.” Read more

HarperCollins has introduced a new Facebook app to promote books called Like to Read. The app lets Facebook users who like a book see an excerpt from that book. Once the book passes a set number of likes, the publisher releases an additional excerpt from that book.

AppNewser has more: “The first book the publisher has promoted with the app is Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes. Every time the likes hit 500, the publisher gives away another excerpt. So far, the book has likes garnered more than 7,000 likes.”

Publishers’ Weekly wrote about the publisher’s future plans for the app: “The publisher has broad plans for Like to Read, and will employ it across five HC imprints. Harper’s goal, [Mark] Ferguson said, ‘is to select books that we think are right for this particular strategy, namely fast-paced, addictive reads that are most likely to activate a fan in the short term and convert them to a buyer in the medium-to-long term.’”

The Wall Street Journal reported today that News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch is considering splitting his publishing and newspaper business off from his entertainment business.

The potential move would separate HarperCollins and News Corp.’s newspapers (including The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post) into a “far smaller” company compared to the entertainment business. The company issued a terse official confirmation that it is “considering a restructuring to separate its business into two distinct publicly traded companies.”

Here’s more from the WSJ: “A split of News Corp.’s businesses would be welcomed by outside investors who are more interested in News Corp.’s television and film assets than its slow-growing publishing businesses. The entertainment assets make up by far the bulk of the company, contributing three-quarters of the $25.34 billion in revenue for the first nine months of the fiscal year. Those assets accounted for roughly 90% of the operating profit in that period.”

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Today HarperCollins announced a major restructuring of its sales department, including a number departures and retirements. We’ve included the complete company memo about the restructuring below…

Customer service VP Dan Holod, customer service director Gail Kunda and distributor sales director Jeff Rogart will all be retiring this summer. Ken Berger, Mike Brennan, Mark Hillesheim, Kathy Smith and Jeanette Zwart will all depart on July 20th.

Here’s more about the shift from Josh Marwell, president of sales: “Effective July 2012 the pricing, promotional, market insight and sales analytics efforts of the company will combine to become part of the sales department. This change will enable us to maximize opportunities for our authors and their readers, our customers, and our publishing divisions. Frank Albanese will now join the sales department as SVP, Market Insight and Sales Operations. In this newly created role Frank will focus on helping the company make sense of consumer behavior both digital and print, providing insight into sales and market trends as well as take on the overall direction of day-to-day sales operations. Dan Lubart SVP, Sales Analytics and Pricing will continue his work analyzing how pricing affects sales, developing tactics to maximize revenue and author exposure and creating interfaces to help his colleagues access complex data quickly and easily.”

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HarperCollins wants to make sure that all HarperCollins books are available in print or eBook form in all English-language markets.

The company has launched the HarperCollins 360 program to make works by authors published in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, India, and Canada available to booksellers and readers in the U.S. when the rights are present.

When the program is in full swing, the publisher’s global catalog will include 50,000 print books and 40,000 eBooks. The press release has more: “The first phase of the program begins July 1, 2012, with HarperCollins U.K. titles moving to HarperCollins 360’s U.S. team.” Read more

HarperCollins Publishers has launched three new internet community spaces called EpicReads.com, pitchdark.com and STORYcrush.com. These three sites allow readers to connect with their favorite HarperTeen authors.

EpicReads will serve as the main hub, while pitchdark appeals to dystopian novel fans and STORYcrush appeals to romantic fiction fans. Authors on pitchdark include Starcrossed trilogy author Josephine Angelini and Old Kingdom series author Garth Nix. STORYcrush features Summer & the City author Candace Bushnell and Pretty Little Liars series author Sara Shepard. You can sign up with your Facebook or Google log-in credentials.

Here’s more from the release: “Features across all sites include registration with social log-in, user and content-rich author profiles, extensive book and series pages, and a daily lifestyle blog on all three channels with original content. Readers can upload art, photos, and videos; create lists; enter daily sweepstakes; take polls and quizzes; Browse Inside forthcoming and new releases; chat openly on the forums; and discover new books and authors.”

HarperAudio will release audiobook versions of fifteen backlist titles by celebrated Czech author Milan Kundera. This marks the first time these Kundera titles will be available in audiobook format.

Actors Richmond Hoxie (fiction) and Graeme Malcolm (nonfiction) will narrate these works. They will be released throughout the rest of this year.

Executive editor Terry Karten had this statement in the release: ”The publication in audio format of the complete works of Milan Kundera, one of the most distinguished and innovative authors of our era, is a major literary event. Harper Perennial has recently reissued Kundera’s backlist with new covers featuring original artwork from the author. These developments are sure to bring renewed attention to this renowned author.”

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