Baker & Taylor and De Marque Partner to Distribute Rich Digital Media Content Via Blio

CHARLOTTE, N.C. and QUEBEC CITY, March 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Baker & Taylor, the world's largest distributor of physical and digital books, and De Marque, a leading Canadian distributor of e-books from Quebec and French Canada, are proud to announce their partnership – one that will focus initially on the distribution of French Canadian e-books around the world through the revolutionary, cutting-edge Blio e-reading application.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090529/CL24290LOGO )

Baker & Taylor distributes e-books that come to life via Blio, the innovative, interactive, full-color application created and developed by K-NFB Reading Technology. Together, Baker & Taylor and De Marque will now offer French Canadian publishers a distribution solution without borders.

"We are very pleased to work with De Marque, a highly regarded digital asset manager and distributor, to increase the supply of e-books to international markets," said Linda Gagnon, Senior Vice President of Baker & Taylor's Digital Media Group. "Our partnership allows De Marque to open up access to new outlets for French Canadian publishers." 

While several digital e-reading environments are suited to novels and other non-illustrated works, Blio can handle these titles as well as the rich media, full-color content contained in highly illustrated, highly graphical titles, without losing the original layout.

"Blio offers an unparalleled digital e-reader solution for preserving the original page layouts of illustrated publications, which had been ignored by manufacturers of e-book devices and e-readers. This software is especially interesting, because it is available for free on the computers that most people already have," said Marc Boutet, President of De Marque. "We welcome this partnership, as it marks a turning point in the international distribution of books published by publishers in Quebec and French Canada." 

Through its strategic relationship with K-NFB Reading Technology, Baker & Taylor is responsible for distributing digital media content via Blio and its vast worldwide distribution network. Children's titles, lifestyle titles such as cookbooks and travel books – and other rich, beautiful digital content – can be found in the Blio store (www.blio.com). Blio will be preloaded on millions of consumers' favorite devices in 2011, including tablets, laptops, desktops and phones from today's top device manufacturers and mobile carriers. Blio will soon be available to users of multiple operating systems, including Mac, Android and Silverlight for Windows Mobile.

About Baker & Taylor

Baker & Taylor Inc. (www.baker-taylor.com) is the world's largest distributor of books, digital content and entertainment products. The company leverages its unsurpassed worldwide distribution network to deliver rich content in multiple formats, anytime and anywhere. Baker & Taylor offers cutting-edge digital media services and innovative technology platforms to thousands of publishers, libraries and retailers worldwide.  Baker & Taylor also offers industry-leading customized library services and retail merchandising solutions. Baker & Taylor is proud to power Blio (blioreader.com), the world's most flexible, engaging and revolutionary e-reading application. Charlotte, N.C.-based 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.

Baker & Taylor and the Baker & Taylor logo are trademarks of Baker & Taylor Inc. Blio is a trademark of K-NFB Reading Technology, Inc. Other company and product names mentioned for identification purposes may be trademarks of their respective owners.

About De Marque

De Marque is an international leader in the development of platforms dedicated to digital content. In the world of digital book education, De Marque develops leading-edge products available in a hundred countries. 

In France, Eden Livres, a leading e-book platform composed of the publishing groups Gallimard, Flammarion and La Martiniere, uses a distribution platform powered by De Marque. In Italy, Edigita, a leading e-book platform that includes three of the four major publishing groups - Feltrinelli, Messaggerie Italiane / GEMS and RCS / Rizzoli - is also using De Marque technology. For more information: www.demarque.com

SOURCE Baker & Taylor