BookExpo America Goes Wide with Podcasting Venture; Convention Significantly Extends Its Reach

Business Wire, June 14, 2007

Show Highlights are Now Available to Everyone

NORWALK, Conn. -- BookExpo America's goal to become a "convention without walls" has become a reality with the announcement of its ambitious podcast and digital coverage of the recent trade event which took place in New York City, June 1 - 3. Podcast coverage of BEA has been a key part of an aggressive program to provide digital and online services and entertainment not only to book industry professionals, but to the general reading public as well. BEA put a dedicated podcast team in place during the convention which spread itself out to cover all aspects of the show in order to provide a record as well as a permanent history of the significant and entertaining content that the show provides. This content is now available for free to everyone and will "roll out" over the next two months. BEA's podcast content is available at www.bookexpocast.com, as well as through iTunes.

"I can't begin to stress the importance and significance that I attach to our podcast initiative," notes Lance Fensterman, Event Director for BEA. "First, it is the perfect and most obvious manifestation of my theme to 'expand boundaries' at BEA. It truly provides a 'convention without walls.' Second, it provides an historical record that will be invaluable to the book industry. We have had many unbelievable personalities, dynamic orators, and celebrated cultural icons participate in our convention through the years. From Tom Wolfe to Bill Clinton; Ray Charles to John Stewart; the list of people who have taken the stage at BEA is truly astounding. It is high time that these appearances live beyond the three days of the convention itself. I certainly hope that publishers share in my enthusiasm and see the enormous value of this program for their authors."

An overview of the BookExpo America Podcast Program and its many highlights include the following:

* Audio recordings of more than 40 special events, educational programs, Upfront & Unscripted interviews and programming from the Audio Publishers Association Conference.

* One episode per day will be released beginning immediately; these episodes will be published on www.bookexpocast.com over the next six to eight weeks.

* Listeners may subscribe for free through iTunes, by email or can listen to the podcasts directly on the site -- listners don't need to have an iPod!

* Traffic and usage of the site is already TRIPLE what it was last year when the podcast program was first launched.

* A few of the authors that listeners will be able to hear talking about their new books include: Khaled Hosseini, Ken Burns, Valerie Plame Wilson, Russell Simmons, Paul Krugman, Ian McKewan, Alice Sebold, and Lisa See.

* Some of the provocative Upfront & Unscripted one-on-one interviews and education panels participants will be able to hear on podcast are: Ken Lombard talking about Starbucks entry into the entertainment world; Christopher Hitchens talking about why religion poisons everything; the secrets of MySpace for publishers; Mariane Pearl talking about her book, A Mighty Heart, being made into a movie; insights to the publishing business in China.

* In addition, BEA featured 24 pre-show interviews with many of the high profile authors who would be paticipating in the show.

The BEA Podcast Program also launched the BEA Authors Studio this year, an innovative service that allowed authors to create their own podcast, right at BEA. The "catalog" of Authors Studio podcasts will become available on BookExpoCast.com starting Tuesday, June 12. Users need to sign up separately for this feed.

* More than 80 authors signed up for this innovative service, ranging from Mayor Ed Koch to Deepak Chopra to many notable first-time authors.

* The Authors Studio interviews were between 3 - 5 minutes long and were recorded in a special studio built next to the Autographing Area.

* Approximately 4-5 Author Studio podcasts will be released per day beginning June12; authors and publicists will be able to use these podcasts as part of their book promotion.

* The Author Studio podcasts are user-sponsored: they cost between $149 - $249 per recording, depending on length.

Finally, BEA also launched the BEA Story Project this year, where people may post their favorite and most memorable stories about BEA.... the first time they went to BEA, their most embarrassing moment, their encounters with famous people, etc. The Story Project allows people to post their stories in text, or as an audio recording.

As noted, all BEA podcasts are also available via iTunes which has created a special "room" for BEA on the iTunes site to make it easy for listeners to subscribe to all three podcast feeds -- the main podcast, the Authors Studio and the BEA Story Project. The iTunes link is:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=25 7269179 (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

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.