Barnes & Noble.com Names Michael Fragnito Vice President, eBooks

Posted on May 5, 2000

Barnes & Noble.com has announced that Michael Fragnito has joined the company as vice president, eBooks, a new position. He reports directly to Steve Riggio, vice chairman and acting chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble.com.

Mr. Fragnito is a former publisher of Viking Studio Books and senior vice president of Production at Penguin-Putnam Inc. Since leaving Penguin-Putnam in early 1999, he has co-authored The Ark to the Future and provided consulting services to the publishing industry through his company, Long Hill Publishing.

In his new position, Mr. Fragnito will oversee the expansion and enhancement of Barnes & Noble.com's eBook capability, a key area of strategic focus for the company. Barnes & Noble.com is a leading online source of electronic books, offering more than 4,000 titles, and plans to further expand its effort this summer with the addition of an eBook superstore, featuring Microsoft Reader technology, on its website.

``Michael is an executive with a rare combination of skills across the editorial, production and business side of publishing,'' Mr. Riggio said. ``He also has a wonderful aesthetic sense and a visceral empathy for the author community. These will be invaluable assets, as the eBook world will not just be a matter of ''ones and zeros`` but will also depend on creating truly exciting and revolutionary products.''

``There is no doubt that electronic publishing and the innovations brought about by technology will have a tremendously positive impact on our industry,'' Mr. Fragnito said. ``I am delighted to have the opportunity to join the team at Barnes & Noble.com, which is positioned to become the leader in the distribution of digital content, and look forward to working with my colleagues in the industry to help define the direction of this new medium. It is a privilege to be one of the people at the epicenter of this revolution.''