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Lightning Print Becomes Lightning Source
Jim Milliot -- 5/15/00

To highlight its deepening involvement with the digital delivery of information, Lightning Print has changed its name to Lightning Source, and in a related development announced an agreement with Microsoft under which Lightning will offer e-books in the Microsoft Reader format.

The deal with Microsoft is the latest in a series of moves taken by Lightning to position itself as a major player in the fledgling e-book market. Over the last several months, Lightning has hired a new management team with Ed Marino as president and CEO; expanded its production facilities to handle greater capacity while ensuring security; and formed alliances with new publishing partners. "E-books are different than print-on-demand titles, and what we are creating is a complete digital infrastructure," Marino explained. Lightning Source will continue to use the Lightning Print name in its print-on-demand operation, while also offering new services for e-books. "We want to make it as easy as possible for retailers to order e-books," Marino said, adding that Lightning has no intention of becoming an e-book retailer or publisher. "Our goal is to get the e-book industry off the ground," Marino declared.

Lightning currently has 9,000 titles in its digital archive and hopes to have 25,000 in its database by the end of the year. The company is converting 300 titles per week and wants to be able to eventually do 1,000 conversions per week. Marino said Lightning is committed to offering e-books in a variety of formats, observing that its agreement with Microsoft is another step toward achieving that objective.

Unlike some others in the e-book world, Marino thinks e-books will make their mark first in the trade area before moving into the scholarly and reference markets. He predicted that there will be "a holiday bubble of activity" this Christmas involving the sale of e-books, although he conceded that it will probably take about two years before the industry hits the 100,000-title mark that he believes will be necessary to sustain sales.

Lightning Source, whose chairman remains Y.S. Chi, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ingram Industries. Separating itself from the Ingram Book Co. "gives us more flexibility to try different things," Marino said. Lightning Source, whose Web site has been changed to www.lightningsource.com, currently has 45 employees and expects to finish the year with 125.

Ingram's expansion of its digital operations follows on the heels of the announcement by Baker & Taylor that it is forming a separate company to focus on Internet opportunities (News, May 8).
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