Who are the wealthy families in Bible publishing?

Zondervan is one of the largest Bible sellers in the Unites States, and it started off as a company run by two brothers.

Thomas Nelson Publishers, a Nashville based company, is the owner of Thomas Nelson Bibles. The company is one of the oldest Bible publishers in the world, and is the largest publisher of the King James Version in the world. The company started in Scotland and was bought by Sam Moore in 1969. In 1958, prior to purchasing Thomas Nelson Publications, Moore founded the National Book Company. Three years later, he incorporated Royal Publishers, Inc., a Bible publishing company. He sold stock in 1962 to about 250 people including Morrow Coffey Graham, mother of noted evangelist Billy Graham.

In 2006, Thomas entered into a definitive agreement to go private in a transaction led by InterMedia Partners VII, LP on behalf of itself and its managed funds and together with certain co-investors. Under the terms of the agreement, each outstanding share of Thomas Nelson common stock and Class B common stock will be converted into the right to receive $29.85 in cash, representing a premium of 21% over the closing price of the common shares and 21.8% over the closing price of the Class B common shares on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, February 17, 2006. The total consideration to be paid to Thomas Nelson stockholders and option holders is approximately $473 million.

According to Biblestudy.org, “The Bible Society of the United Kingdom calculates that the number of Bibles printed between 1816 and 1975 was 2,458,000,000. By 1992 the estimated number rose to nearly six billion. Furthermore, worldwide sales of the Bible number more than a staggering 100 million each year, far outpacing any other book in history. Without a doubt, the Bible is the best selling book of all time.

“This means that as of 2007 approximately 7.5 billion Bibles have been distributed throughout world—with the vast majority still available for use! And these figures do not include the various digital versions of the Bible being used today by millions on computers, Blackberries and iPhones.”

”. . . the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year. Calculating how many Bibles are sold in the United States is a virtually impossible task, but a conservative estimate is that in 2005 Americans purchased some twenty-five million Bibles—twice as many as the most recent Harry Potter book. The amount spent annually on Bibles has been put at more than half a billion dollars.”

The largest Christian publisher is Zondervan, which was a family company, but has since been purchased by Harper Collins.

“Thomas Nelson has a history stretching back to 1798, and, in the American market, it is by some measures the largest Christian publisher, the second-largest publisher of Bibles, and the ninth-largest publishing house of any kind. In June, Thomas Nelson, which last changed hands thirty-seven years ago, for $2.6 million, was purchased by a private investment firm for four hundred and seventy-three million dollars.

The New Yorker