The digital publishing success of the Bible has been spotlighted in one of the first editions of the first daily newspaper created for the iPad.

According to The Daily's "The greatest app ever downloaded" report, the Bible is "leading the way" as more people turn to e-books, with "an all-new digital edition landing on the bestseller list for the first time in the text's history."

Zondervan's updated New International Version hit No. 136 on USA Today's best-seller list last month, ahead of next month's print release. The report noted that Zondervan is a division of HarperCollins, which, like The Daily, is owned by News Corp.

Timothy Beal, author of The Rise and Fall of the Bible (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), told The Daily that he thought the Bible was especially conducive to a digital format. "People don't read the Bible as a book, from page one to the end, in a linear, long-form way," he said. "Indeed, it's not a book at all. ... It's really a library, a collection of writings."

• Prev
• Next