MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
January 15-31, 2005 Edition
Taunton Press
Taps Random House
As New Distributor
NEW YORK, NY/01/06/04The Taunton Pressa leading publisher of books and magazines about hands-on skills such as home building, cooking, and gardeninghas named Random House as its new sales unit and distributor. The company is leaving Publishers Group West (PGW) after a seven year relationship as one of PGW’s largest customers.
The move indicates a growing trend among major publishers to offer distribution services to smaller publishers.
Taunton Press had comprised about ten percent of PGW’s distribution business. The distributor, owned by American Marketing Services (AMS), now faces not only a loss of a major client, but also growing competition from other distributors such as Random House and Ingram.
Avalon Publishing Group, though rumored to be leaving PGW, remains its largest client. Two new reps will be hired by PGW by the end of the first quarter to exclusively sell Avalon titles to top chains. Avalon publisher Charlie Winton had considered developing an internal sales force, but opted instead to let PGW beef up its sales force to concentrate on Avalon titles.
Established in 1976, PGW is headquartered in Berkeley, CA with a national sales office in New York City, and a distribution center located in Indianapolis, IN.
One of the top ten vendors of books in the country, Publishers Group West represents over 150 independent publishers located in all regions of the United States, in Canada, and the UK.
Parent company Advanced Marketing Services, Inc. (NYSE: MKT) is a leading distributor of general interest, computer and business books and books on tape to the membership warehouse club industry and other specialty retailers. AMS distributes its products to individual customer locations throughout the United States and in Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
