MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
September 27 – October 4, 2007 Edition
Forbes Promises
to Correct Serious Error
In Ingram Sales Report
NASHVILLE, TN/9/25/07 John R. Ingram, Vice Chairman of Ingram Industries and Chairman of Ingram Book Group, said in a statement late last week that Forbes magazine had made a “gross error” and exhibited “careless journalism in reporting a serious decline in Ingram’s book division sales last year.
The Forbes 400 listing published September 21 described Ingrams book division sales as down 48% last year.
This could not be further from the truth, and there is no basis whatsoever for this to be asserted by Forbes, Mr. Ingram said. Sales by our book division from 2005 to 2006 were up modestly and 2007 is up significantly year-to-date. This is certainly not a decline and absolutely not down 48 percent as Forbes incorrectly reported today.
Not only is our core book wholesaling business steady, but our Lightning Source business continues to grow rapidly, and our Ingram Digital opportunities are extremely exciting which all adds up to the opposite of what Forbes reported today. We are baffled as to where their information came from and appreciate the editors willingness to dig into that further and make the correction meanwhile.
Matt Miller, editor of the Forbes 400 section, acknowledged the error and promised the statement would be immediately stricken from the Forbes.com website and corrected in the next issue of Forbes magazine.
ABOUT INGRAM INDUSTRIES INC.
Ingram Industries Inc., based in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of Americas largest privately held companies. It consists of diversified businesses in distribution, marine transportation, aggregate supply, print on demand book manufacturing and digital fulfillment services. Ingram Industries Inc. includes four operating divisions: Ingram Marine Group, Ingram Book Group, Lightning Source Inc. and Ingram Digital Group.
