Barnes & Noble Names William J. Lynch, Jr. President of Barnes & Noble.com

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that it has named William J. Lynch, Jr. as President of its online business, Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), effective February 2, 2009.

“He has experience in product development, brand marketing, relationship marketing and direct marketing; he has managed both a technology start-up company and run large e-commerce organizations.”

Mr. Lynch joins Barnes & Noble from HSNi, where he was Executive Vice President of Marketing and General Manager of HSN.com. From 2004 to 2008, he was Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of gifts.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of IAC.

“William brings a broad array of skills to Barnes & Noble,” said Steve Riggio, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. “He has experience in product development, brand marketing, relationship marketing and direct marketing; he has managed both a technology start-up company and run large e-commerce organizations.”

From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Lynch was Vice President and General Manager, E-Commerce, for Palm Inc., where he oversaw Palm’s Web properties, including: Palm.com, the Palm Online Store, the Palm Software Connection and the Palm.Net wireless ISP. His earlier career included brand management positions at Seagram Universal and Guinness.

Mr. Lynch graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Economics and received his MBA from the Columbia School of Business.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 799 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble is also the nation’s top bookseller in quality, and for the fifth year in a row, the top bookseller brand, as determined by a combination of the brand’s performance on familiarity, quality, and purchase intent, according to the EquiTrend® Brand Study by Harris Interactive®. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company’s corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.