On June 11, the Los Angeles Kings defeated the New Jersey Devils to win the coveted Stanley Cup. Even before the victory parade that wended its way down a major downtown Los Angeles street on June 14, Triumph Books, which is renowned for its quick-turn around on producing fully-illustrated sports commemorative books, released in collaboration with the Los Angeles Times a full-color trade paperback celebrating the team’s victory: Crowning Glory: The Los Angeles Kings’ Incredible Run to the 2012 Stanley Cup. The book, which was produced with a 10,000-copy print run, documents in text and illustrations provided by the Los Angeles Times the number eight playoff seed’s unlikely journey towards the first Stanley Cup championship. Crowning Glory retails for $14.95. The e-book edition, which includes embedded video clips from the game and from the victory parade, will be available for sale at the Apple store within the next 24 hours. It will retail for $9.99.
“L.A. and hockey are not generally associated with each other,” Triumph Books publisher Mitch Rogatz told PW , “But we’re hoping this hockey thing catches on. [Los Angelenos] may not know how to play hockey, but they know how to watch hockey games and buy hockey books.”
Triumph Books has been distributed by IPG since last September, when Rogatz bought Triumph back from Random House, which had acquired the sports publisher in 2006 from Rogatz. Rogatz described the Chicago-based distribution company as “really great” in making sure that Crowning Glory was delivered to retailers throughout the greater Los Angeles area before the coming weekend.
