Cowles Creative Publishing Acquires Book Titles,Calendars and Audio Books from NorthWord Press.

MINNETONKA, MN and MINOCQUA, WI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 23, 1997-- Cowles Creative Publishing, Inc. (CCP), a subsidiary of Cowles Media Company, Minneapolis, MN, and NorthWord Press, Inc. today jointly announced the acquisition of 137 book titles, calendars and NorthWord's audio books division

Employment in Minocqua is not expected to be affected by this agreement, a NorthWord spokesman said. NorthWord will continue to develop and publish its audio/sound products under current ownership and management.

The products acquired by CCP from NorthWord include adult and children's nature books, such as the best sellers Loon Magic, Brother Wolf, and Dear Children of the Earth, nature calendars and nature orientated audio books, the companies said.

According to CCP President, Iain Macfarlane, the company plans to distribute NorthWord's product line to specialty channels and the book trade through its existing internal sales force. He said CCP plans to explore international agreements with other publishers and distributors as the company develops the product line for international export.

Product management will be handled from CCP's Minnetonka headquarters with warehouse distribution from Warren Industries in Racine, Wisconsin, Macfarlane said.

"We look forward to complementing CCP's existing outdoor-orientated products with those from NorthWord, for both retail and direct marketing distribution," Macfarlane said. "And we're looking forward to developing new products and custom publishing products with the many fine authors and photographers whose work currently appears in NorthWord's titles," he added.

"I am delighted by the opportunity to place more than a dozen years of nature focused publishing into the hands of a world class publisher like Cowles Creative Publishing," said Tom Klein, NorthWord chief executive officer. "This is a great home for NorthWord books. We can now focus our efforts on developing nature-themed music, our primary business."

NorthWord Press, Inc. is a leading publisher of nature books and audio/sound products for adults and children, nature calendars, audio books and nature videos. In addition to its nature books, calendars and audio books, NorthWord Press has the country's largest line of nature related music products with two of the strongest brands in the industry, NorthSound and Nature Quest. The Minocqua, Wisconsin based company employs 55 people.

Cowles Creative Publishing, Inc., based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, is a specialty publisher of direct marketing and retail books in the home arts, do-it-yourself and outdoor markets, and is a supplier of custom publishing, film and video production and other marketing and promotional creative services. It is a unit of Cowles Media Company, a Minneapolis-based newspaper, magazine and information services company with total annual revenues of approximately $500 million.

CONTACT: Cowles Media

Franklin J. Parisi

612 673-7013

NorthWood

Don Bergman

715/356-9800