Barnes & Noble, Inc. Names Maureen O'Connell Chief Financial Officer.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 2000

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the nation's largest bookseller, today announced the appointment of Maureen O'Connell to the position of chief financial officer. Ms. O'Connell was named one of twenty financial executives "who will make a difference in the next decade" in the January 2000 issue of CFO magazine. She replaces Marie Toulantis who was named chief financial officer of Barnes & Noble.com last year.

Prior to joining Barnes & Noble, Ms. O'Connell served as the chief financial officer of Publisher Clearing House, where she was responsible for all the financial functions for this $1 billion direct-marketing company. Previously, she was the chief financial officer at BMG Direct, the direct-marketing arm for music clubs at Bertelsmann AG (1997-98).

From 1990 to 1997, Ms. O'Connell played a key role at Primedia, a leading media and publishing company, as it grew from a start up to over $1.5 billion in sales, primarily as a result of acquisitions. During her tenure, she was instrumental in developing its financial infrastructure, and evaluating and integrating the companies it acquired. Ms. O'Connell was also chief financial officer at two divisions of Primedia - Newbridge Communications (1995-97), an educational publisher, which also owns professional book clubs, and Newfield Publications (1993-95), which runs children's book clubs.

"Maureen brings fifteen years of financial management experience, including the areas of book and magazine publishing, music clubs, and direct marketing, to Barnes & Noble," said Leonard Riggio, chairman and chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. "Her strong background in strategic planning, financial operations, and mergers and acquisitions will prove to be invaluable as we continue to prosper and grow."

Ms. O'Connell has a BS degree in accounting and economics from the Stern School of Business at New York University and is a Certified Public Accountant. She is married and has two children.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) operates 542 Barnes & Noble and 400 B. Dalton bookstores, and Babbage's Etc., one of the nation's largest operators of video game and entertainment software stores. Barnes & Noble stores stock an authoritative selection of book titles and provide access to more than one million titles. They offer books from more than 50,000 publisher imprints with an emphasis on small, independent publishers and university presses. Barnes & Noble is one of the world's largest booksellers on the World Wide Web (http://www.bn.com), and the exclusive bookseller on America Online (Keyword: bn). Barnes & Noble.com has the largest standing inventory of any online bookseller. Barnes & Noble also publishes books under its own imprint for exclusive sale through its retail stores, mail-order catalogs, and Web site.

General financial information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's investor relations Web site: http://www.shareholder.com/bks/.