Barnes & Noble offers Nook discounts

[January 10, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Barnes & Noble said Monday it will offer its e-reader devices at a discount if buyers purchase a digital subscription to People magazine or The New York Times.

The bookseller will shave $50 off the normally priced $249 Nook Tablet for buyers who also purchase a one-year Nook subscription to People magazine.

In addition, it will offer a free Nook Simple Touch or $100 off a $199 Nook Color e-book reader for people who also buy a one-year subscription to The New York Times.

The People subscription is $9.99 per month and The New York Times subscription is $19.99 per month. The offers are good until March 9.

New York-based Barnes & Noble Inc. has been considering its options for the Nook business, including possibly spinning it off. It is facing tough competition from Amazon.com, which offered its Kindle Fire for $199 and its Kindle e-reader for $79 over the holidays. Barnes & Noble sold its Nook Tablet for $249 and its black-and-white Simple Touch e-reader for $99. Demand for the Simple Touch reader lagged expectations during the holidays, Barnes & Noble has said.

Still, combined sales of Nook products were brisk, up 70 percent compared with a year ago during the nine-week period ended Dec. 31. Digital content sales more than doubled. The company expects those sales to total $450 million in fiscal 2012.

Shares of Barnes & Noble rose 63 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $11.82 in afternoon trading.

[Associated Press]

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