In a move that reinforces the company's digital emphasis, Zondervan has acquired BibleGateway.com—the most popular Web site for reading and researching the Bible.

As part of the agreement, Zondervan also acquired from Gospel Communications the rights to Gospel.com, an online community of Christian organizations. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Originally launched in 1993, BibleGateway.com allow users to search, find and compare particular scripture passages based on keywords, phrases or Scripture references in more than 50 languages and in 81 translations. Gospel Communications is a Muskegon, Mich.-based nonprofit organization devoted to spreading the gospel through film, the Internet and other media.

"We commend Gospel Communications for being ahead of the curve in the mid-1990s when they first had the vision to create a free, online Bible search tool that would include content from all of the key Bible publishers," said Zondervan President and CEO Moe Girkins. "We couldn't be more excited to carry forward the vision of Gospel Communications and continue to build on BibleGateway.com's heritage."

In the coming months, Zondervan intends to expand the BibleGateway's user interface and add additional reference materials from Zondervan's proprietary content and author resources as well as work in partnership with other content providers, company officials said. Zondervan has also hired some of the BibleGateway.com's staff to continue their work.

Zondervan recently announced that it will serve as the exclusive distributor of the Reader Digital Book by Sony to the Christian retail channel. Introduced in 2006, the Sony Reader was the first product of its kind in the publishing industry. The second edition of the device was released in 2007, featuring expanded capabilities and features.

Additionally, more than 400 Christian stores have signed up for Zondervan's new Symtio initiative, touted as "a turnkey, multi-channel solution for digital media," which debuted earlier this month.

Unveiled at the International Christian Retail Show in July, Symtio features credit-card-sized book tokens that can be purchased in Christian retail stores, which allow consumers to download audio versions of the titles at home.

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