Zondervan Publishing House, a division of HarperCollins, has announced the formation of a new children's publishing group, Zonderkidz. "This makes it sound like we're in start-up mode," said Gary Richardson, former v-p for product development and publisher at Pages Inc., who came to Zondervan as children's publisher in January. "Actually, we are already one of the largest children's publishers in CBA."
The Zonderkidz group is designed to coordinate all strategy, marketing and sales for children's product across Zondervan's four divisions -- Bibles, Books, New Media and Gifts. Zonderkidz products will include children's Bibles and devotionals, videos and software, special format books, picture books and books for preschoolers. Since 1993, Zondervan's children's revenues have grown from $4.1 million to a projected $14 million for 1998. Bestselling Bibles and books have included The Beginner's Bible (nearly 3.5 million), The New International Version Adventure Bible (more than 1.8 million) and Legend of the Candy Cane (280,000). The first products bearing the Zonderkidz logo will be released in February 1999.
Besides Richardson, other key Zonderkidz staff include Tom Mockabee, v-p of Bibles and Zonderkidz; Linda Peterson, marketing director; Kathy Bieber, promotions manager; and Verne Kenney, v-p of sales for national accounts.
