Everything about Zondervan totally explained
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.
Bernard Zondervan died of
cancer in
1966, and his wife remarried William Jensen, a
Grand Rapids anesthesiologist. Pat Zondervan died in
1993.
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.
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 controversial writer and evangelist
Hal Lindsey. That book 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.
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.
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.
Recent developments
In
1988, Zondervan became a division of
HarperCollins Publishers, which is owned by
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, joining the British Christian imprints of
Fount and
Marshall Pickering, which Zondervan oversaw for a while. Ownership by
News Corporation has led to some controversy, and one executive attempted a buyout in
1992.
There have been a number of controversies surrounding Zondervan in recent years. The
TNIV offended some
Christian conservatives, and the take-over by
HarperCollins meant that the firm now belonged to an organization that also publishes non-Christian books.
In
2005, Zondervan senior marketing director Greg Stielstra published
Pyromarketing, which discusses book marketing. This reportedly caused a dispute with
Rick Warren, who felt that it was inappropriate to associate the success of
The Purpose Driven Life with marketing, rather than with spiritual explanations. See
(External Link
). Stielstra left Zondervan just prior to the publication of
Pyromarketing.
Zondervan has also faced complaints about the use of Chinese printing facilities to produce Bibles.
Criticisms
Zondervan's position as a conservative evangelical publisher appears to have changed in recent years, as it sought to publish a wider selection of material. However, the success of many popular authors within the evangelical Church such as Rick Warren, Rob Bell, Philip Yancey, Shane Claiborne and John Ortberg reflects the claim that Zondervan publishes to 'meet the needs of people' (External Link).
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's conserved all the more where advanced compression algorithms (like Pradis boasts) are employed to store multiple large reference works. Pradis isn't backward compatible to Zondervan's previous software.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Zondervan'.
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