Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC is an American

self-help Self-help or self-improvement is "a focus on self-guided, in contrast to professionally guided, efforts to cope with life problems" —economically, physically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. When ...

and consumer goods company based in

Cos Cob, Connecticut Cos Cob is a neighborhood and census-designated place in the town of Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. It is located on the Connecticut shoreline in southern Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County. It had a population of 6,873 at t ...

. It is known for the ''Chicken Soup for the Soul'' book series. The first book, like most subsequent titles in the series, consisted of inspirational true stories about ordinary people's lives. The books are widely varied, each with a different theme. The company has branched out into other categories such as food, pet food, and television programming.

History

Books

Motivational speaker A motivational speaker (or inspirational speaker) is a speaker who makes speeches intended to motivate or inspire an audience. Such speakers may attempt to challenge or transform their audiences. The speech itself is popularly known as a pep ta ...

s 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. 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''. A 19-episode

anthology series An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different ca ...

made up of stories from the series was produced and aired in the 1999–2000 television season by PAX TV, the current-day

Ion Television Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August ...

Expansion from books

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 Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

. Under the new ownership group, Chicken Soup for the Soul has expanded into other products 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. Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment went public in 2017. In November 2017, it acquired Screen Media Ventures, LLC, an independent television and film distribution company, which included Popcornflix, an ad-based online video service. On July 10, 2024, a bankruptcy judge ordered Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment to undergo a

Chapter 7 bankruptcy Chapter 7 of Title 11 U.S. Code is the bankruptcy code that governs the process of liquidation under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. This is in contrast to bankruptcy under Chapter 11 and Chapter 13, which govern the process of ''re ...

liquidation after accusing Rouhana of misusing the business and failing to pay employees or support healthcare. With the Chapter 7 conversion, the company's assets will be liquidated, resulting in the cessation of its subsidiaries, including Crackle, Popcornflix and

Redbox Redbox Automated Retail, LLC was an American video rental and streaming media company, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois west of Chicago. Redbox specialized in automated DVD rental kiosks, and operated transactional and ad-supported streamin ...

. In addition, over 1,000 employees were laid off, and over 26,000 Redbox kiosks were shut down permanently.

Awards

The original series held a spot on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list continuously from 1994 to 1998.

References

External links