MAIN NEWS HEADLINES

April 15-30, 2004 Edition

WSJ Signs

Three-Year

Deal With Crown

NEW YORK, NY/04/02/04—The Wall Street Journal has signed a three-year book publishing deal with Crown/Random House to publish a wide range of topics, both business and non-business. The new contract apparently replaces a three-year deal with Simon & Schuster’s Free Press which was not renewed. Neither S&S or WSJ executives would say why the newspaper decided to move its imprint to Crown.

The Wall Street Journal had originally planned to release about 12 books per year at S&S, but had produced only five titles in recent years. The plan at Crown calls for release of a minimum of four titles per year.

The first WSJ title to be released by Crown will be THE WSJ GUIDE TO THE BUSINESS OF LIFE, which draws on the Personal Journal and Weekend sections of the newspaper. The book is scheduled to reach stores in the spring of 2005.