Mercury and Barnes & Noble, Inc. Announce Winner of National Essay Contest
9 June 2000
Mercury and Barnes & Noble, Inc. Announce Winner of National Essay Contest
NEW YORK - As part of its ongoing partnership, Barnes & Noble, Inc and Mercury announced the first student winner of its "Mercury Sable Independent Thinkers series" essay contest today. Tom Tolworthy, president of Barnes & Noble Booksellers and Deborah Wahl, marketing communications manager for Lincoln Mercury, will present a $25,000 check to high school student Lucia Smith. A matching $25,000 check will be presented to Evanston Township High School in Illinois at a ceremony to be held at the Barnes & Noble store in Evanston, IL on Monday, June 12th.The essay contest is part of the "Mercury Sable Independent Thinkers series" book series sponsored by Mercury, Barnes & Noble and Barnes & Noble.com. This program underscores Mercury's tagline, "Live Life in Your Own Lane," by featuring a rotating series of books - in Barnes & Noble retail stores and online at www.bn.com - whose authors or subjects are considered to be of "independent thought." Evanston Township High School will also receive copies of the 60-book series from Barnes & Noble at the ceremony.
Entrants in the essay contest were asked to write an essay about one of the featured authors or books and explain why they thought their choices were examples of "independent thinking." Lucia chose the book "Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World," by Mark Kurlansky.
Mercury formed the unique partnership with Barnes & Noble, Inc. and Barnes & Noble.com in October 1999 after identifying Sable owners' passion for reading and their mindset for independent thinking.
"Barnes & Noble is committed to programs which support literacy, education and the arts," said Tom Tolworthy, President of Barnes & Noble Booksellers. "Our partnership with Lincoln Mercury further demonstrates our ongoing commitment to supporting these kinds of programs for our customers and our communities ."
"Our partnership with Barnes & Noble, Inc. and Barnes & Noble.com has allowed us to reach consumers in a whole new way," said Deborah Wahl, marketing communications manager for Lincoln Mercury. "We are pleased to extend this partnership into the community and to emphasize our corporate commitment to education by recognizing high school students such as Lucia."
The essay contest, which ran for eight weeks, was extended to more than 2000 high schools. Entry forms were available at all Barnes & Noble retail stores nationwide. Almost 5,000 entries were received. In addition to the national student winner, eight students around the country will be awarded prizes of $5,000 with a similar grant to their respective high schools.
About Mercury:
Mercury, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., markets a full line of vehicles including Sable, Cougar, Mountaineer, Villager, and Grand Marquis.
About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. operates 544 Barnes & Noble and 389 B. Dalton bookstores, and Babbage's Etc., one of the nation's largest operators of video game and entertainment software stores. Barnes & Noble stores stock an authoritative selection of book titles and provide access to more than one million titles. They offer books from more than 50,000 publisher imprints with an emphasis on small, independent publishers and university presses. Barnes & Noble is one of the world's largest booksellers on the World Wide Web, and the exclusive bookseller on America Online (Keyword: bn). Barnes & Noble.com has the largest standing inventory of any online bookseller. Barnes & Noble also publishes books under its own imprint for exclusive sale through its retail stores, mail-order catalogs, and Web site.
About Barnes & Noble.com
Barnes & Noble.com is the first online bookseller to offer a vast in-stock inventory with an editorially rich bookselling environment. The company's online catalog includes more than three million titles, including virtually every book in print as well as more than 12 million listings from its nationwide network of out of print, rare and used book dealers. Its lightning fast proprietary search engine enables customers to locate specific titles quickly or to explore books on just about any imaginable topic. With 800,000 titles on its shelves, it now offers the largest selection of in-stock titles of any bookseller online. Encompassing over 30 miles of shelving, it is the largest collection of books under one roof in the history of bookselling. More than 50,000 book publishers, including thousands of small and independent presses, university publishers and privately published books are represented.
Barnes & Noble.com brings the world's best-known bookselling name to the Web with an editorially rich site that includes more than 500,000 synopsis, book reviews, customer reviews, table of contents, articles and interviews. It hosts daily live author chats, bringing readers and writers together in a lively interactive discussion. Customers of Barnes & Noble stores can find a nationwide store directory, complete with driving instructions and listings of local events. Rated No. 1 by Forbes.com as the best bookselling site on the Web two years running, the company strives to become the single best place to buy books online.
Barnes & Noble.com's excellence in e-commerce extends to the music business where it was voted by Forbes.com as the No. 1 music site on the Web. Cited by Forbes.com for being "best-of-class for anyone who wants to learn about the music they're buying" it features a classical music superstore and is distinguished by an emphasis on jazz, world music and Broadway show tunes. As in its book site, Barnes & Noble.com's music site has extensive editorial features from both in-house editors and licensed content.
Barnes & Noble.com is an industry leader in the burgeoning market for electronic books. Its site features more than 4,000 eBook titles that can be viewed on the Rocket eBook portable book reader. The company will dramatically expand its offering for eBooks when it opens its eBook superstore in summer 2000, featuring the new Microsoft Reader platform, which will enable users to download eBooks to any PC, laptop or Pocket PC and open the market for eBooks to more than 100 million users. The company believes that in the not too distant future it will offer digital versions of virtually every book in print.
In May 2000 Barnes & Noble.com pioneered its Same-Day Delivery service to its Manhattan, New York customers. This rapid delivery service enables the huge residential and working population of Manhattan to get delivery within hours of virtually any book in print from today's bestsellers to the most hard-to-find titles from small publishers. The service also includes delivery of more than 100,000 music CDs.
Barnes & Noble.com's e-commerce initiative extends to the B2B arena, where its Business Solutions program provides Fortune 1000 companies with a turn-key Intranet bookstore, enabling them to streamline and control their book purchasing process. Barnes & Noble.com is also a leader in mobile commerce through its Barnes & Noble On the Go wireless shopping. Customers can now shop the company's Web site from portable devices such as PDAs and mobile phones, giving them access to any book, anywhere, any time.
Barnes & Noble.com has made strategic investments in companies whose products and services enable it to increase its offerings in information products and services that are compatible with its core business. By doing so the company is able to expand its scope by benefiting from the investments, marketing and technology initiatives of industry leaders. To date, the company has invested in enews.com, the Internet's No. 1 site for discount magazine subscriptions; BuyEnlarge, which uses state-of-the-art technology to produce prints and posters on demand, and notHarvard.com, the pioneer in developing online branded universities and the concept of eduCommerce.