Baker & Taylor to Offer Rich Digital Media Content from Wiley on Blio

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Baker & Taylor, Inc., the world's largest distributor of physical and digital media, is proud to partner with global publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa and JWb) to provide rich, highly-formatted content on Blio. Blio is the revolutionary e-reader software application created by knfbReading Technology and powered by Baker & Taylor.

"Baker & Taylor is proud to offer a wide array of Wiley's educational and consumer titles on Blio," said Tom Morgan, Chairman and CEO of Baker & Taylor. "With colorful illustrations, photos and informative graphics, Wiley's titles, including cookbooks and travel books, offer much more than straight text to educate readers. Readers will be blown away."

By leveraging strong relationships with the publishing community as well as its best-of-breed digital media partners, Baker & Taylor is converting, managing and delivering new content for Blio every day. With more than 44,000 customers in 120 countries, Baker & Taylor's global reach makes it the perfect partner to provide superior content management and distribution for the world's most innovative e-reader application. Baker & Taylor's affiliation with Blio is its latest step in bringing comprehensive digital media services to multiple channels and to a wide variety of end users, strengthening its position as the premier source for physical and digital media distribution.

"We have enjoyed our longstanding partnership with Baker & Taylor – with its strong distribution infrastructure and expertise," said Peter Balis, Wiley's Director of Online Sales. "We are excited to extend our Baker & Taylor partnership beyond physical books to this new and rapidly evolving world of digital media, providing our customers with our must-have titles on this new platform and on the device of their choice."

Blio, featuring cutting-edge print-to-speech (for rights-enabled titles) and full-color 3-D technologies, is the brainchild of futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil. Blio delivers the most advanced, flexible and open reading platform in the world. Blio is exceptional at bringing to life the books that Wiley excels in publishing – such as cookbooks (download recipes) and travel books (follow a video to a distant land). Blio is also hardware neutral, meaning it works on a number of devices, including personal computers, laptops, netbooks and iPhones, not to mention up and coming tablets.

About Baker & Taylor

Baker & Taylor, Inc. (www.baker-taylor.com) is a global information and entertainment services company that offers print and digital books and entertainment products along with value-added services to libraries, educational institutions and retailers. Based in Charlotte, N.C., the company has been in existence for more than 180 years, developing long-term relationships with major suppliers, including book publishers, movie studios and music labels. Baker & Taylor maintains one of the largest combined in-stock book, video and music inventories in the United States, and services the broadest customer base in the industry. Baker & Taylor is majority owned by Castle Harlan Partners IV, L.P., an institutional private equity fund managed by Castle Harlan Inc., a leading private equity investment firm.

About Wiley

Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (www.wiley.com) has been a valued source of information and understanding for more than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations. Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 400 Nobel laureates in all categories: Literature, Economics, Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Peace. The Hoboken, N.J.-based company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols JWa and JWb. Wiley's portfolio of global brands includes For Dummies, Frommer's, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, CliffsNotes, Webster's New World, J.K. Lasser, Jossey-Bass, Pfeiffer and Sybex. Subject areas include business, technology, architecture, professional culinary, psychology, education, travel, health, religion, consumer reference, pets and general interest.

About knfbReading Technology Inc.

knfbReading Technology Inc. is a joint venture between Kurzweil Technologies – headed by CEO Ray Kurzweil, a 30-year innovator and pioneer in assistive technologies and the inventor of the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind – and the National Federation of the Blind, the largest, most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States.

SOURCE Baker & Taylor, Inc.