Barnes & Noble Will Publish Dick Wolf's Law & Order: Crime Scenes In October 2003.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 24, 2003

The First Official Book about the Longest-Running Drama on Network Television Will Be Released To Coincide with the Start of the 14th Season of the Show

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, announced today that in October 2003 it will publish Law & Order: Crime Scenes by Dick Wolf, the creator and producer of the longest-running drama on network television. The more than 100 photographs in the book are by Jessica Burstein who has been the photographer for Law & Order since 1994. The book's publication date is October 15th.

"We're proud to be publishing the first official book about this extraordinary television program by its creator, Dick Wolf," said Alan Kahn, president of Barnes & Noble Publishing. "The format of the book resembles a police blotter and captures all the gritty realism and fascination of the show itself. It is the definitive collector's edition for Law & Order's millions of fans. We are also pricing the book at $30.00, which is consistent with our strategy to publish books of extremely high quality at affordable prices."

After an introduction by Dick Wolf, the book opens with "Anatomy of a Crime Scene," which follows the production of a specific episode's crime scene. Included are interviews with cast and crew members, from the executive producer to Jerry Orbach to the "murder victim." Chapter Two, "Scenes of the Crime," is the centerpiece of the book, featuring stunning, never-before-seen photographs of Law & Order's most provocative crime scenes. Wolf describes the photographs by Jessica Burstein as "emblematic of my initial vision of the show."

In Chapter Three, "In the Criminal Justice System," Wolf finally "goes home" with the show's characters, revealing the personal lives of the detectives and attorneys throughout the history of the series. The book concludes with a "Postmortem" by Burstein, featuring thumbnails of the photos with notations on which episode each one came from and anecdotal information about the shoot and the actors.

The Law & Order franchise, from Wolf Films and Universal Network Television, is the most successful in the history of primetime television, with all four branded series regularly placing in the top 20 of all primetime television programs. Entering its 14th season on NBC, Law & Order holds the record for most consecutive outstanding drama series Emmy nominations, winning the award for "Outstanding Drama Series" in 1997. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is entering its fifth season; Law & Order: Criminal Intent is entering its third season; and the "drama-mentary" series Crime & Punishment is currently in its second season, all on NBC.

Law & Order: Crime Scenes can now be preordered on Barnes & Noble.com www.bn.com. Sterling Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, will distribute it to the book trade and specialty retailers.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is the world's largest bookseller, operating 630 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 49 states. It also operates 245 B. Dalton Bookseller stores, primarily in regional shopping malls. The company offers titles from more than 50,000 publisher imprints, including thousands of small, independent publishers and university presses. It conducts its e-commerce business through Barnes & Noble.com (http://www.bn.com) in which it owns an approximate 38 percent interest.

Barnes & Noble also has approximately a 60 percent interest in GameStop (NYSE: GME), the nation's largest video-game and entertainment-software specialty retailer with 1,309 stores.

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