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Gospel Communications sold its online assets in part because the free services were not free to host. How will Zondervan pay for the cost of running BibleGateway?

We do need to monetize our purchase, and our vision for that will get rolled out. But we're concerned over the impact any announcement might have on retailers. We will come up with a way that everybody wins, but it will take us a little longer to make those announcements. We're working with other publishers on this, but I believe there's room for something between zero and $1,000. I'm expecting a 99-cent pay-per-view type of offering.

Will expanded digital offerings run the risk of cannibalizing your existing print audience?

Google and MySpace are big senders to the site. Our belief is that if somebody gets interested in the Bible digitally, they will go and want their own copy. So we do think it will trigger additional Bible sales. What we've found with Christian books in general is that the highest purchasers of digital content are your highest purchasers of print.

Will BibleGateway get involved in social networking?

Interestingly, after BibleGateway's own widgets, the No. 2 site sending people to BibleGateway is Google, and the No. 3 referral is MySpace. And we see a lot of early believers or seekers using this site as well. We believe a successful Christian social network will begin with people already in community and in churches. As far as social networking, we actually are getting pretty excited about the possibilities, but that will be the next press release.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

See our earlier interview with Girkins, "The CEO Who Takes Greek Exegesis."

Zondervan's Rich Tatum announced the news of the acquisition on his personal blog.

The Grand Rapids Press also covered the acquisition.

Bible Gateway has a blog, which mainly announces new translations available on the site.

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November (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52