Zondervan is owned by Harper Collins
Was everyone aware that Zondervan is owned by Harper Collins? Harper Collins is owned by Rupert Murdoch who also conveniently owns Fox, Fox News, Myspace.com, Wall St Journal, The Sun, Down Jones, News Corp. That actually pisses me off quite a bit. I don’t know what it is, but I was hoping there was a little bit of purity in the Christian publishing business. I had no idea that it was part of a massive media monopoly. It makes me sick. How much Christian literature is marketed and sold as nothing more than a marketable product?
It is stuff like this that makes me glad for the internet. I don’t have to read, if I don’t want to, anything that has a stamp on it of some empire that doesn’t care about beauty. I don’t have to sell out, if I don’t want to, to some empire that monetizes anything, no matter what it’s selling out to. Now if only authors looked at it the same way and refused to allow their stuff to be controlled and directed by this empire.
1. It is not a media monopoly; a monopoly is when there is a lack of competition. None of Murdoch’s companies qualifies.
2. If you don’t like what Zondervan produces, don’t buy it.
3. If publishers do not make a profit (yes, even ‘Christian’ publishers), then they will be out-of-business and therefore not producing ANY Christian media. Zondervan knows this and has made their peace with it. (There are other issues which are more important on this topic than you raise here . . .)
4. Your last paragraph is hard to follow . . . I’m not sure why you MUST read Zondervan material any more than you MUST read the internet. There is no gun to your head. For instance, I generally avoid WJK material because of a couple of titles they published quite irresponsibly a couple of years ago – and I made my position known to them. And life went on.
I assume then that you are going to contact Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and ask them to remove your name and blog from their search engine? Or is it only corporations that you don’t like do you get mad at. And the internet that you so dearly love only exists due to money and financial backing a lot of which comes from big bad corporations like Rupert murdochs. Just some food for throughg a 2 in the morning when I can’t sleep
1. Monopoly was probably the wrong choice of word, point taken.
2. The problem is, there are some things that Zondervan produces that I do like, but when you put it next to Bible for people who like horses, I feel like it devalues the books I do like.
3. I never said there was anything wrong with making profit. My issue is the “selling out” factor in that they seem to be ok with also producing shit, whatever brings in the buck. When money becomes the only standard by which you judge if you would publish something or not, well that’s when I throw up some red flags for any organization.
4. The point about my last paragraph was that I’m glad that the internet has allowed the average writer to have a voice and they aren’t forced to having to be published by a massive publishing company for their voice to be heard.
I’m saying that it is unfortunate that such a massive part of Christian books (especially the Bible) is controlled by someone who doesn’t care about the message and is willing to sellout to make a buck.
So, you’d prefer that publishers pick and choose what they’d publish based on content? Which would essentially mean that the publisher becomes a de facto censor.
NOOOO JOHN!!! I would not prefer that entirely
I would argue now that they are already censoring content now strictly on what makes money or not. Find me one thing that Zondervann would publish that would break even or cost them money and they are doing it because they believe in it. I realize businesses need to make money, but I want to have a bit of hope in organizations and that there is something deeper going on than pure profit seeking. I just want some balance, that’s all I’m asking for. But knowing Zondervann is part of a larger initiative to make billions in publishing books (for one man especially), it doesn’t seem to have that much merit.
I hear where you are coming from. While I think your questions are important and need to be addressed, one thing that has somewhat helped me with this issue: A pagan Empire helped rebuild Jerusalem from it’s ill gained wealth (see Nehemiah).
Peace,
Jamie
Oh man everyone is giving you a hard time here in the comments.
One thing I would like to add. Zondervan publishes an amazing about of the Christian literature nowadays. So anyone who has power over Zondervan has a lot of power and influence over modern day Christian thought. I think its important to at least be aware of the issue. It is interesting to think about it…
This is something that I found out today for the first time. I’m glad that you’re blogging about it. Did you know that Zondervan owns Biblegateway.com as well? They bought it out from a small non-profit about a year ago. Biblegateway is now a for profit website. I agree with Marvin as well that it is important to remember that “anyone who has power over Zondervan has a lot of power and influence over modern day Christian thought.” News Corporation (owned by Rupert Murdoch as well) is the largest producer of porn.