Borders.com and About.com, Formerly Known as MiningCo.com, Announce Online Alliance
Borders.com to be Exclusive Online Bookseller on
About.com Network of Over 650 Topic-Specific Sites
NEW YORK and ANN ARBOR, Mich., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet Guide network(TM), About.com (Nasdaq: BOUT) and online retailer Borders.com, today announced a major online affiliation. Formerly known as MiningCo.com, About.com is a network of more than 650 topic-specific sites led by expert human Guides.
The agreement calls for the building of individual co-branded bookstores across the entire network of About.com topic-specific sites that cover 17,000 subjects. In addition, Borders.com will have access to About.com's content, including thousands of book reviews and feature articles, with new content regularly added. Borders.com will also receive prominent ad placement throughout the About.com site. About.com will receive advertising revenue via the promotion of the Borders brand and e-commerce revenues via sales generated by guide recommended bookstores.
"This partnership is an ideal fit for About.com. It adds another highly targeted e-commerce avenue to our vertical network of top-specific sites. We look forward to working with Borders in enhancing our users' ability to immerse themselves in the Internet's most relevant, high quality content," said Scott Kurnit, Chairman and CEO of About.com.
"We're extremely selective when it comes to forging online alliances," said Rick Vanzura, President of Borders Online, "About.com has surpassed all of our criteria for a productive, long-term affiliation. The network has great customer value, a high-end demographic very similar to our own, and thoughtful, high quality content. This arrangement also provides great incentives for both sides to maximize the value of the relationship."
"The GuideSites on About.com offer retailers the leverage of a special interest platform for direct sales of relevant products and services," said Alan Wragg, President, Advertising Sales & E-Commerce, About.com. "By deeply integrating content with contextual commerce, our partners can fully develop a 1 to 1 relationship with our users," continued Wragg.
About Borders and Borders.com
Borders Group, Inc., is a leading global retailer of books, music, video and other information and entertainment items with stores in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., Borders Group, Inc., is the parent company of Borders, Inc., which operates over 250 Borders Books and Music stores in the United States, offering what is widely regarded as the broadest selection of books and multi-media titles available to consumers anywhere. It is also the parent of Borders.com, an electronic commerce site that has access to over 650,000 titles and over 10 million books, music and video items in stock and ready for immediate shipping from a state-of-the-art fulfillment and distribution center. With cafe operations in nearly all of its stores, Borders, Inc., is one of the nation's largest specialty coffee retailers. Through Borders (UK) Limited, Borders Group, Inc., also operates 26 Books etc. and three Borders stores in the U.K. In addition, Borders Group, Inc., owns Walden Book Company, Inc., which has approximately 900 Waldenbooks stores in malls, shopping centers and airports across the country. Borders Group, Inc., trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BGP.
To learn more about our company, come see us at bordersgroupinc.com. For information on Borders stores, visit bordersstores.com. For the ultimate online book, music and video shopping experience, explore borders.com.
About About.com
About.com is a leading Internet media company that provides a branded network of 18 channels and more than 650 topic-specific sites led by expert human Guides. Each GuideSite provides a comprehensive experience on a particular area of interest and includes a filtered directory, original content, as well as community features that include chat, discussion forums, newsletters and event calendars. The combination of human guidance and vibrant community creates a trusted environment in which transactions and e-commerce flourish. In fact, About.com members have been shown to have a higher propensity to make purchases online than visitors to the leading navigation and community sites, as surveyed by @Plan's Spring '99 release. About.com is the 4th largest news, information and entertainment site on the Web, as ranked by Media Metrix.
SOURCE Borders.com
CO: Borders.com; About.com
ST: New York, Michigan
IN: MLM REA
SU: PDT
05/21/99 07:29 EDT prnewswire.com |
