Is there a golden future for Zinio?

Zinio Systems has been purchased by a private equity company backed by David H. Gilmour, the co-founder of Canadian-based Barrick Gold Corporation, the world's number 1 gold producer, who clearly sees a future in non-paper publishing. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Zinio is one of the larger (it would say 'leading') companies involved in publishing and distribution of digital magazines and e-books. The San Francisco-based company manages the distribution of a portfolio of 1,200 digital magazines and books from more than 240 publishers. Two Canadian magazines that are on Zinio's menu are Maclean's and The Western Standard. The company says it has distributed more than 65 million items since 2002 on behalf of client publishing companies such as McGraw-Hill, Playboy Enterprises, Primedia, Rogers Publishing, Transcontinental Media, World Publications and Ziff Davis.

"The acquisition was based on vision, timing and the extraordinary ability and passion of the people at Zinio," said Gilmour, in a news release. "The company represents the most important fundamental change in the last 150 years of publishing and distribution. Zinio is the solution to the problems of waste, pollution and escalating costs in conventional print publishing. This technology has initiated change and provides for a new era of interactive media that eclipses the flat world of publishing today."

Gilmour was co-founder of Barrick Gold Corporation with his longtime partner, Peter Munk, and Horsham Corporation, which became TrizecHahn, an enormous, publicly traded real estate investment trust. Last year, he founded VIV Publishing LLC, which publishes the first all-digital healthy lifestyle publication for women called VIV Magazine.