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| Type | Corporation |
|---|---|
| Founded | Grand Rapids, Michigan (1931) |
| Headquarters | Grand Rapids |
| Website | www.zondervan.com |
Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company, one of the four businesses founded by Dutch-Americans that have made Grand Rapids, Michigan into the USA's "Christian Publishing Capital," alongside Eerdmans, Baker Books, and Kregel. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). Doug Lockhart was president and CEO until May 2007. Former President and CEO Bruce Ryskamp acted as interim Head until Maureen "Moe" Girkins became CEO on January 2, 2008.1
Bernard Zondervan died of cancer in 1966, and his wife remarried William Jensen, a Grand Rapids anesthesiologist. Pat Zondervan died in 1993.
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History
Zondervan was founded in 1931 in the suburb of Grandville, Michigan by brothers P.J. (Pat) and Bernie Zondervan, who were the nephews of publisher William Eerdmans. The company began in the Zondervans' farmhouse, and originally dealt with selling remainders and reprinting public domain works. Within a couple of years it developed a list of its own, and began publishing Bible editions. The Berkeley Version appeared in 1959, and the Amplified Bible in 1965. The New International Version NIV New Testament was published in partnership with the International Bible Society in 1973, and the complete NIV Bible appeared in 1978.2
Zondervan also publishes many other books by Christian authors and focusing on topics of interest to Christians, and in the 1970s it produced the best-selling US published book of the decade: The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. It was one of several dispensationalist and anti-Communist works that the company brought out, and Pat Zondervan was one of several evangelical figures who received briefings from Henry Kissinger on instruction from Richard Nixon.3
The publishing house is also known for inspirational titles: Joni by quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada is perhaps the best-known. Most recently, it has had great success with Baptist minister and author Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life and with Rob Bell, author of Velvet Elvis and presenter of NOOMA a series of short spiritual films.
Record Business
Zondervan was in the Christian record business for several years with the Zondervan and Zondervan Victory labels in the 1960s, Singcord in the 70s, and the Milk & Honey Records label in the 1980s.4
In 1980, Zondervan and Paragon Associates bought Christian record label Benson Records in a partnership to own and operate. Zondervan bought out Paragon in 1983, and eventually sold Benson to Zomba Label Group in 1997, now a part of Sony BMG Music Entertainment.5
Pradis
Zondervan's ventures into software sales have led to the emergence of another library format in the biblical reference world, Pradis. While their own early software library offerings were either STEP-Compatible or able to use add-on STEP-Compatible works, or both, stagnation in the future development of the STEP Library format led to the development of a library using the Pradis system. While not open format, the availability for outside licensing and publishing makes it similar to the STEP Library and The Libronix Digital Library System, especially for users of religious software who want integration of various reference works, using one application to access and cross-reference them all. Further, by limiting duplicate applications running or loaded, system registries are kept cleaner, more works can be open and cross-referenced simultaneously, hard disk space is conserved, and it is conserved all the more where advanced compression algorithms (like Pradis boasts) are employed to store multiple large reference works. Pradis is not backward compatible to Zondervan's previous software.
Symtio
Symtio is the publishing industry’s first patented digital merchandising solution for retail,6 allowing consumers to purchase digital content at a bricks-and-mortar store. Symtio functions the same way as downloading music online. Consumers purchase a merchandise card in store for a specific audio book or ebook title. They take the card home and go to www.symtio.com where they enter the code on the back of the card. The book immediately begins downloading in the format of their choice. Ebooks can be read on a computer, or an epaper device like the Sony Reader. Audio titles can also be used on a computer or transferred to CD or uploaded to an MP3 player.
See also
Notes
- ^ Zondervan - Maureen Girkins Appointed President and CEO of Zondervan
- ^ James Ruark and Ted Engstrom, The House of Zondervan, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981.
- ^ Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett, Thy Will Be Done, New York: HarperCollins, 1995, p.690.
- ^ Zondervan, Singspiration, Singcord, Milk & Honey
- ^ Benson Music
- ^ [1]
External links
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 26 October 2008, at 22:15.
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