Chicken Soup for the Soul
| Private | |
| Industry | Publishing Licensing Internet Consumer packaged goods Entertainment |
| Founded | June 28, 1993 |
| Founder | Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen |
| Headquarters | Cos Cob, Connecticut, USA |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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William J. Rouhana, Jr. (Chairman & CEO) Amy Newmark (Publisher) |
| Website | ChickenSoup.com |
Chicken Soup for the Soul is a publishing, consumer goods and media company based in Cos Cob, CT. It is known for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books. The first book, like most subsequent titles in the series, consisted of inspirational true stories about ordinary people's lives. The book became a major best-seller and something of a social phenomenon. Today Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC continues to publish about a dozen new books per year. The company has also branched out into other categories such as food, pet food, and television programming.
Motivational speakers Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen collaborated on the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, compiling inspirational, true stories they had heard from their audience members. Many of the stories came from members of the audience of their inspirational talks. The book was rejected by major publishers in New York but accepted by a small, self-help publisher in Florida called HCI.
After the success of the first book, Canfield and Hansen, with HCI, published additional, similar Chicken Soup for the Soul titles. Later, they published Chicken Soup for the Soul books for specific demographics, such as Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, which came out in 1997 and was a major best-seller. New Chicken Soup for the Soul titles and sequels to existing books have been published on a regular basis since the first book came out in 1993. As of late 2013, the series included more than 200 titles.
In 2008, the founders, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, sold the company to a new ownership group led by William J. Rouhana and Robert D. Jacobs. Since then all new titles have been published by Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC and distributed by Simon & Schuster.
Under the new ownership group, Chicken Soup for the Soul has expanded into other categories besides books. The company markets pet foods under the brand Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul and a line of soups, sauces and other prepared foods under the brand Chicken Soup for the Soul.
In 2009, author Adeline Lee Zhia Ern was found to have plagiarized the story "Happiness" by Sarah Provençal from Jack Canfield's Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul IV.
In 2013, the company announced plans to produce a television series and movie with Alcon Entertainment. Chicken Soup for the Soul has also produced television programming with other partners, including PBS.
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