News Release

Finney Company Defies the Odds,

Adds Great Outdoors Publishing Company

 

 

 

For Additional Information Contact:

Ann Prescott

Marketing Manager

(952) 469-6699

 

 

 

For release                                                                                         February 16, 2009

 

 

            Lakeville, Minn.─ Finney Company Inc., a growing independent publisher and distributor of educational materials and trade books, is defying popular trends in publishing by expanding during these interesting economic times.  Finney Company announced today that it is acquiring Great Outdoors Publishing Company and relocating the business from St. Petersburg, Florida, to Lakeville, Minnesota.

 

Finney Company was established in 1947, but just in the past six years has acquired ten companies, expanding both the proprietary titles and titles distributed for other publishers. In December, Finney Company purchased Skipjack Press, expanding its early tools and blacksmithing title base by six titles. Now, Great Outdoors Publishing Company has been added to this list of highly regarded companies providing lifelong learning materials to schools, libraries, and individuals worldwide.

Great Outdoors Publishing Company is a family-owned business with Florida publishing roots that go back four generations, all the way back to 1913. For nearly 100 years, Great Outdoors Publishing Company has published and marketed books that reflect its mission: Great Outdoors Publishing Company offers a selection of regional books that will inspire residents and visitors alike to understand, explore, respect, love, celebrate and preserve Florida's outdoors, so that they will come to realize what a unique and interesting place Florida is, and become real Floridians.

 

Currently Great Outdoors Publishing Company publishes more than 40 Florida titles and distributes about 400 others for publishers large and small.

 

 “We are pleased to use this acquisition of the Great Outdoors Publishing Company imprint to expand our title offerings in the Florida and trade book regional markets,” President Alan E. Krysan said. “By combining our Windward Publishing and the Great Outdoors imprints, customers will have the added benefit of more titles to choose from one source.” 

 

Krysan continued, “Since 2001 when we acquired Windward Publishing, we have been supplying books to Jan Allyn and Great Outdoors, so we consider this an honor to have the opportunity to continue what her family started nearly 100 years ago.” 

 

This year Finney Company is releasing three new titles of particular interest to the customers of Great Outdoors Publishing Company.   Ecopress, an imprint of Finney Company, announced the publication of Reef Rescue by India Evans in January.  In this thrilling novel, India Evans takes the reader on a fast-paced eco-adventure mixed with mystery, history, and the sights and sounds of one of America's favorite resort towns: Key West, Florida!  On February 2, 2009, Windward Publishing released Through Endangered Eye:, A Poetic Journey into the Wild by Rachel Allen Dillon.  Dillon makes her debut on the literary scene with this colorful collection of over 20 endangered and threatened species.  Along with poems and paintings, the book includes a guide of factual information specific to each species and how people can help prevent extinction. The book also includes children’s activities to reinforce its message of conservation.  Due in April, also under the Windward Publishing Imprint, is Let’s Meet a Marine Educator by Tasha Jacobson. In this exciting title, readers will learn all about the work of marine educators, from where they work and what they teach, to what they write and the games and programs they create. 

 

In addition to these new releases, immediate plans call for reprinting several of the Great Outdoors titles that have been out of stock. A new combined Finney Company Trade Book Catalog is being developed to include all of the Great Outdoors titles.      

 

With the addition of Great Outdoors Publishing Company, Finney Company currently has more than 350 proprietary publications and distributes more than 6,000 quality products, enhancing the company’s mission to help improve the quality of lifelong learning worldwide.

 

 “The addition of Great Outdoors Publishing Company strengthens the scope and reach of proprietary titles available from Finney Company and certainly gives us a stronger regional list of titles to offer our Florida and Southeastern US customers,” Krysan said.

 

For additional information about Great Outdoors Publishing Company, visit www.floridabooks.com.  For additional information about Finney Company, visit www.finneyco.com or call (952) 469-6699.

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