RUPERT MURDOCH PROFITS FROM AMERICAN GIRL BOYCOTT?

The Southern Baptist Conference's BP News reports:

A conservative-led boycott of the popular American Girl book and doll series during the Christmas season apparently led many parents to seek alternatives -- so much so that one Christian company saw its sales nearly triple in the final weeks of 2005.

The Life of Faith book and doll series -- sometimes called the Christian alternative to American Girl -- experienced a 172 percent increase in sales from the time the boycott began, says Sandi Shelton, president of Mission City Press, which owns the Life of Faith series....

Mission City Press is part of Zonderkidz, a division of religious publisher Zondervan -- which, in turn, is a division of HarperCollins, a part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

A flyspeck on Murdoch's balance sheet, to be sure, but every little bit helps.