S&S to Add Beacon Street Girls to Its List Beginning in May 2008

MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
December 13 – December 20, 2007 Edition

S&S to Add Beacon

Street Girls to Its List

Beginning in May 2008

NEW YORK/12/10/07–Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, one of the leading children’s book publishers in the world, and B*tween Productions, Inc., creators of the Beacon Street Girls(R) (BSG) brand, today announced that Aladdin M!X, Simon & Schuster’s tween program, will add the wildly successful Beacon Street Girls book series to its list beginning May 2008. Aladdin M!X will license, market and distribute the books world wide. B*tween will continue to create the award-winning stories. The company will focus on growing the brand through the company’s online presence and expanding its product and media licensing operations.

With the introduction of the Aladdin M!X program earlier this year, Simon & Schuster is the first major publisher to focus on the 9-13 year-old audience with a branded line of paperback originals and reprints. Created in 2004, the Beacon Street Girls was the first brand designed specifically to help preteen girls navigate adolescence using friendship-focused contemporary fiction. Today, the Beacon Street Girls books, website and line of gifts provide tween girls everywhere with positive media and strong role models.

"Simon & Schuster’s well-established sales channels and marketing muscle will propel the Beacon Street Girls books to greater levels of global distribution and recognition," said Addie Swartz, chief executive officer, B*tween Productions. "The M!X team’s express focus on the preteen market allows them to efficiently reach girls both domestically and internationally, spreading our brand message globally."

"The Beacon Street Girls brand presents positive messages and parent-approved values in a mass market media-friendly format. The brand has a strong base of super fans online worldwide, and more than a half million books sold into the U.S. and Canadian markets," said Rubin Pfeffer, executive vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Children’s Trade. "We are committed to making the Beacon Street Girls the new classic in preteen literature."

Katani’s Jamaican Holiday, the fifteenth Beacon Street Girls book and the fourth "BSG Special Adventure," due out in the first half of 2008, will be the first book produced under the new partnership. New books will be published four times a year. Aladdin M!X will also reissue the Beacon Street Girls fourteen previously published books.

The Beacon Street Girls Online Presence Further Cements the Brand’s Connections with the Substantial Tween Market

According to the 1999 Nickelodeon/Yankelovich Youth Monitor Survey, 9 to 13 year-old kids, also known as tweens, influence or are directly responsible for $335 billion in spending annually. Almost 90 percent of tweens are online — the vast majority with daily access to the Internet from home. "Today, the Internet does more to shape tween brand awareness and preferences than any other medium," said Swartz. "This partnership allows the B*tween team to extend our online effort, which will in turn benefit both book sales and the BSG brand overall."

The Beacon Street Girls(R) brand (BSG) is designed to celebrate the potential in every tween — those girls between the ages of 9 and 13 who are "between toys and boys(TM)." The Beacon Street Girls, whether online or in the widely popular book series, are shaped by leading experts in adolescent development and current research on how to positively impact girls’ self-esteem. The Beacon Street Girls world and Club BSG can be found online at http://www.beaconstreetgirls.com

Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, one of the leading children’s book publishers in the world, is comprised of the following imprints: Aladdin Paperbacks, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Libros para ninos, Little Simon(R), Little Simon Inspirations(TM), Margaret K. McElderry Books, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Simon Pulse, Simon Scribbles, and Simon Spotlight(R). While maintaining an extensive award-winning backlist, the division continues to publish acclaimed and best-selling books for children of all ages. In addition to numerous Caldecott, Newbery, and National Book Award winners, Simon & Schuster publishes such high-profile properties and series as Eloise, Olivia, Raggedy Ann & Andy(TM), Henry & Mudge(R), The Hardy Boys(R), Nancy Drew(R), The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts(R), Nickelodeon’s(R) Dora the Explorer(R), Blue’s Clues(R) and SpongeBob SquarePants(R), and Mirage studios’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(TM). For more information about Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, visit our website at http://www.SimonSaysKids.com .

Simon & Schuster, a part of the CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada,and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit http://www.simonsays.com