Total Sports Launches Print, E-Commerce Venture
Calvin Reid -- 6/15/98
Relaunched as a new-media publisher last October, former sports-book packager Total Sports is planning a cross-platform publishing venture that will integrate print and online editions supported by an electronic commerce component.This month the company will release The Total Baseball Catalog: Great Stuff and How to Buy It ($24.95), edited by Bob Carroll, Lloyd Johnson and David Petrusza, a 600-page guide to buying virtually anything connected with the game of baseball, from uniforms to baseball cards to music, batting cages and books. John Thorn and Mike Gershman, the directors of Total Sports, emphasized that the new venture is more than a catalogue. "We're a cross-platform publisher-content d sn't know what form it's in," said Thorn, who emphasized the venture's capacity for electronic retail sales of books and related merchandise by publishers. In addition to the print catalogue, there will be a website that will allow visitors to buy merchandise listed in the catalogue. "Sports fans are disproportionately represented on the Web, and we hope to create a brand that will make us one-stop shopping there," said Thorn, director of TS publishing programs. The Total Baseball Catalog will offer centralized fulfillment and secure credit-card ordering, and will list contacts for specialized vendors. Total Sports's spring list includes East Side, West Side: Tales of New York Sporting Life, 1910-1960 by Lawrence Ritter ($34.95) and The Commissioners: A History of the Commissioners of Baseball by Jerome Holtzman ($29.95). Each title will be supported by a website and online ordering. In addition to its book-publishing ventures, Total Sports has about 60 employees, with 45 of them based in Raleigh, N.C. In addition to book publishing the company maintains daily news-reporting websites for all major sports; online newsletters; and offers simultaneous Webcasts of sports events. Back To News---> |
