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May 1-15, 2005 Edition

Barnes & Noble

Expects Slow Growth

Report for First Quarter

New York, NY/04/20/05—Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, has reaffirmed existing sales and earnings guidance for the first quarter and for the full year ending January 28, 2006. For the first quarter, the company expects comparable store sales at Barnes & Noble stores to be in the low single digits, and for the full year comparable store sales are expected to increase approximately 3%. Barnes & Noble, Inc.’s first quarter earnings per share are expected to be in a range of $0.11 to $0.13, and for the full year earnings per share are expected to be in a range of $1.94 to $1.98.

The company’s guidance does not reflect any charges for adopting Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 123 (Revised 2004), “Share-Based Payment,” now expected to be adopted in the first quarter of fiscal 2006.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. will report first-quarter earnings on May 17, 2005.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 820 bookstores in 50 states. For the third year in a row, the company is the nation’s top retail brand for quality, according to the EquiTrend® Brand Study by Harris Interactive®. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com ( www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites and the number-one brand among e-commerce companies, according to the latest EquiTrend survey. In addition to its retail operations, Barnes & Noble is one of the largest book publishers in the world. Its subsidiary, Sterling Publishing, publishes over 1,100 new titles a year and has an active list of over 5,000 titles.