IDG Books Announces Name Change to Hungry Minds

Posted on November 15, 2000

IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. has announced that it will change its name to Hungry Minds, Inc., effective Nov. 14, 2000. The new name signals the evolving transformation of the company's business beyond the realm of printed books to a variety of e-services such as subscriber-based e-newsletters, corporate answer networks, downloads and destination websites like frommers.com, cliffsnotes.com and dummies.com

John Kilcullen, Hungry Minds, Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, ``Simply put, books no longer exclusively define who or what we do as a global branded content company. Our new corporate name witnesses to the growing importance of diverse communities of aspiring learners whom we serve. Books will remain a core distribution platform of our content. However, we are committed to both deepening and applying new ways of engaging our customers. The strategic shift is in aligning our business processes wherein the book's publication marks the initial of continuous, lifelong learning relationships with readers and electronic customers instead of the end of the publishing process.''

``As we increase our online portfolio of branded content solutions,'' said Bill Barry, President and Chief Operating Officer, ``the Hungry Minds Knowledge Network will represent a more robust, timely and cost-effective solution set for our customers. These customers share an intense appetite to learn and continually turn to one or more of our 'how-to' brands for personal enrichment or improvement of their earnings potential and productivity at work and at home. Our mission is making challenging topics or tasks simple. In today's complex world that mission has never been more relevant, especially in the growing e-learning market where our recent asset purchase of hungryminds.com provides a valuable knowledge network of partnerships and resources. Our new name better reflects our evolution as a company and the growing base of customers we serve and we are excited about extending our leadership position online as we have in print over the last ten years.''