ADDING MULTIMEDIA Barnes & Noble and Verizon Announce Season's Readings: One Million Books for One Million Children

Business Wire, Nov 19, 2004

NEW YORK -- Nationwide Holiday Effort to Provide Books to Children in Need

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 61 percent of low-income families have no books at all in their homes for their children(a). To help put books in the hands of these children, Barnes & Noble, Inc., the world's largest bookseller, and Verizon, America's largest telecommunications company and Literacy Champion, today announced a joint program for this holiday season, "Season's Readings: One Million Books for One Million Children." The program encourages shoppers at Barnes & Noble stores all across the country and online at Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com) to donate children's books to charities in their community.

"Season's Readings" kicks off at 12 noon in New York at Barnes & Noble's Union Square flagship store on Friday, November 19, 2004. Actor and author John Lithgow will read from his new children's book, Carnival of the Animals (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), and his publisher, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, will get the ball rolling with a donation of 2,000 books, earmarked for the United Hospital Fund's "The Bedtime Story" project.

Following this festive event, Barnes & Noble customers across the country can add children's books to their purchases. Barnes & Noble will donate the books to nonprofit organizations, libraries or schools in local communities. Much like the John Lithgow event in New York, many Barnes & Noble stores will also hold special holiday season "StoryTime Readings" to benefit the program, featuring local celebrities, athletes, children's book authors or government officials.

Verizon will invite their customers to donate to the literacy effort and will provide information about "Season's Readings" in customer bill messages. In addition, for every Verizon customer who signs up online for Verizon Online DSL service at www.verizon.net/millionbooks, Verizon will donate a book to a child on their behalf.

Verizon Plus stores will serve as collection points for new children's books. For locations call (800) 483-6697. Verizon will also donate warehouse space to store books, and company employees will pledge time to read to children at home and in literacy programs across the country.

Donating with "Season's Readings" is easy:

--Customers can add children's books to their purchases at any Barnes & Noble location.

--They can also donate online at Barnes & Noble.com, (www.bn.com/millionbooks), or Verizon Reads (www.verizonreads.net). Shipping on orders of $25 or more will be free of charge.

--Barnes & Noble's Libros en Espanol section also makes it possible to donate a Spanish-language children's book to the "Season's Readings" program.

--Customers at Barnes & Noble stores will be able to personalize their donations with a bookplate and/or a gift tag to the recipient.

--Customers can drop off book donations at their local Verizon Plus stores.

Since 2000, Verizon has annually rallied its 200,000 employees to host "Season's Readings" book drives in markets across the country and donate their time as volunteer readers in their local communities. Since the holiday book drive program's inception, more than 800,000 books and 130,000 volunteer hours have been donated in communities nationwide.

Tom Tauke, executive vice president, public affairs and communications for Verizon, said, "Season's Readings is one of Verizon's signature programs in its decade-long commitment to improving literacy in America. We are pleased that Barnes & Noble has teamed with us this year, and together with our dedicated employees, we are determined to reach our goal - getting one million books to one million children."

"Over the years, Barnes & Noble has had an annual book drive which has provided books to hundreds of thousands of children in need," said Barnes & Noble spokeswoman, Mary Ellen Keating. "Every child deserves the opportunity to read. By joining with Verizon this holiday season, we expect to increase donations and reach many more children."

For more information about "Season's Readings: Million Books for One Million Children" visit Barnes & Noble online at (www.bn.com) or Verizon Reads at (www.verizonreads.net).

About Barnes & Noble, Inc

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 839 bookstores in 50 states. For the third year in a row, the company is the nation's top retail brand for quality, according to the EquiTrend(R) Brand Study by Harris Interactive(R).

Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites and the number-one brand among e-commerce companies, according to the latest EquiTrend survey. In addition to its retail operations, Barnes & Noble is one of the largest book publishers in the world. Its subsidiary, Sterling Publishing, publishes over 1,300 new titles a year and has an active list of over 6,000 titles.

General financial information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate Web site: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/financials.>