BookExpo America to Offer Podcast of Author Events; New Technology Significantly Extends Reach of Convention … Author Speeches and Interviews will be Available to Public

Business Wire, May 1, 2006

NORWALK, Conn. -- In a significant development that will extend the reach of its highly regarded author programming, BookExpo America (BEA) has announced that it will make critical portions of its special event and educational speeches and panels available in a podcast format. The BEA Podcast will offer all BEA attendees, as well as the general public, the opportunity to listen to many of the speeches and interviews that take place at BEA on their own individual iPods, computers, or cell phones, anytime, anywhere. BEA's author events are a highlight of convention activity and have never before been accessible in a format that would enable people to take part in this author programming without actually being there. The BEA Podcast will be produced and published by BurstMarketing, publisher of the popular podcast show "Authors On Tour - Live," a weekly podcast of best-selling authors and new voices, which is produced in partnership with The Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver, CO. BEA will take place at the Washington DC Convention Center, Thursday, May 18 - Sunday, May 21.

"The BEA Podcast definitely takes BEA in a direction that I want to explore more fully in the future," notes Lance Fensterman, Show Director for BEA. "It provides flexibility and it expands our audience. This will not only be a valuable service for booksellers, retailers, educators, publishers and other industry professionals who will be able to listen to events they may have missed at BEA, but it also makes our programming available for the first time to consumers and book lovers everywhere!"

The BEA Podcast will be created by taping select speeches and conversations from many of the special events and panels, and may include selections from such notable personalities as John Updike, Tim Russert, Barack Obama, Monica Ali, and Anderson Cooper, among many others. The program will also feature selections from the Editor & Bookseller Buzz Forum, as well as the Frontline Booksellers' Summer Picks. In addition, the BEA Podcast will create original content by having a roving reporter at the exhibition hall conducting one-minute spot interviews with attendees and industry experts on "what's hot" at the show. "Our intent is not only to entertain, but also to provide customers with the type of information and news that can only be gathered at BEA," concludes Fensterman. "We want to be able to build on the buzz that is often started at BEA." The BEA Podcast will consist of approximately 20 episodes, each lasting about 30 minutes, and will be distributed over a period of two months after BEA itself is over.

The BEA Podcast will be hosted by a companion site www.bookexpocast.com where people can pre-subscribe free of charge to the podcasts in advance of BEA. BookExpo America (BEA) is a trade only event. For more information concerning BookExpo America and registration for the above events, please call 800/840-5614 or 203/840-5614 (International) or visit the BEA web site at www.bookexpoamerica.com.

BookExpo America (BEA) is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association and the Association of American Publishers, and is managed by Reed Exhibitions (RX), a division of Reed Elsevier plc. Reed Exhibitions, the world's largest organizer of business-to-business events. Each year Reed events assemble about 156,000 suppliers and over a million buyers from around the world. Today, Reed events are held in 35 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia/Pacific, and are organized by 30 fully staffed offices. Reed's portfolio of events serves 49 industries in 12 key sectors. BEA is one of many Reed Elsevier properties within the Reed Global Book Publishing Network, whose trade events include the Asia International Book Fair, London International Book Fair, Salon du Livre: Paris Book Fair, Tokyo International Book Fair and BookExpo Canada, and whose Reed Business Information (RBI) properties include Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, School Library Journal, and Variety Magazine. As a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group, a world-leading business and information provider, Reed offers integrated market access programs covering exhibitions, trade publications, direct marketing and the Internet over a database of more than 9 million. (NYSE: RUK/ENL).