New Providence, N.J. - March 8, 2007 - R.R. Bowker, the global leader in bibliographic information management, today announced the introduction of PubTrack Consumer, an important new business intelligence service designed exclusively for the publishing industry.

PubTrack Consumer provides data regarding consumers’ book purchases, combined with demographic and behavioral profiles. The product will also link consumer purchases to weekly activities, valuable marketing information that is not available elsewhere. This fact-based data provides publishers and retailers with business intelligence upon which they can make tactical and strategic business decisions.

PubTrack Consumer’s core database is built upon consumer information collected weekly from a national sample of men and women aged 13 and older. To ensure both accuracy and reliability, Bowker contracted with two leading U.S. market research firms for panel and survey management, as well as database development. The survey itself consists of 60 core questions each week and up to 15 variable proprietary questions requested by PubTrack business customers.

“PubTrack Consumer provides publishers and retailers with information they simply can’t get from other types of data sources, such as book consumers’ purchase motivation, demographic profiles, media use, loaning habits and reading preferences of adults, teens and children,” said Kelly Gallagher, general manager of the business intelligence business unit for Bowker, a newly formed division which, in addition to PubTrack Consumer, provides sales data analysis tools to the Higher Education, Canadian and Christian retail marketplaces. “By empowering publishers and retailers to make more calculated business decisions based on totally objective consumer information, we believe that PubTrack Consumer will be an excellent compliment to the sales data tools already in use by providing our customers with a more complete picture of the publishing industry.”

Random House Inc., the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher and a division of Bertelsmann AG , recently signed an agreement to license the new product.

“As a charter subscriber to PubTrack Consumer, we’re looking forward to obtaining detailed consumer research regarding book buyers from Bowker and using that data to better inform our decisionmaking,” said David Thompson, vice president and director of sales analysis for Random House, Inc.

According to Gallagher, Random House’s subscription to the PubTrack Consumer service entitles them to a lengthy list of quarterly data reports, including channel market share analyses, fair share analyses, consumer purchase motivators, and author/brand awareness reports.

About Bowker
Bowker is the world's leading provider of bibliographic information management solutions designed to help publishers, booksellers, and libraries better serve their customers. The company is focused on developing various tools and products that make books easier for people to discover, evaluate, order, and experience, as well as providing services to publishers that help them better understand and meet the interests of readers worldwide. Bowker is a member of the ProQuest family of companies and is headquartered in New Providence, N.J., with additional operations in England and Australia. For more information, please visit www.bowker.com.

Contact Information

News Media
Beth Dempsey
for Bowker
beth@bethdempsey.com
Phone: 248-349-7810

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