News Release

Finney Company Bound for Success with Pogo Press

For Additional Information Contact:

Ann Prescott

Marketing Manager

(952) 469-6699

For immediate release December 15, 2006

Lakeville, Minn.─ Finney Company Inc., a growing independent publisher and distributor of educational materials and trade books, again expanded its company by acquiring Pogo Press, relocating the business south from St. Paul 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 October, Finney Company purchased The New Careers Center and its Lone Oak imprint, expanding its Career Development Department. Pogo Press has been added to this list of highly regarded companies for a combined total of more than 200 years of providing lifelong learning materials to schools, libraries, and individuals worldwide.

The two publishers of Pogo Press, cofounders Moira (Molly) and Leo (John) Harris, will stay on as consultants with Finney Company to continue developing Pogo Press books. “We are pleased to use this acquisition of the Pogo Press imprint to enter the regional market for trade books,” President Alan E. Krysan said, “and using the contacts and publishing expertise of the Harrises will be most beneficial.”

Pogo Press was incorporated in 1986. For the ensuing twenty years Pogo Press published books concerning the arts, history, and popular culture, most with a regional orientation. In all, it published forty titles.

New Pogo Press imprint books planned for 2007 and 2008 include a sesquicentennial history of Minnesota by Steven Keillor and a book devoted to the forthcoming Republican National Convention in St. Paul by Barry Casselman.

Minnesota authors published by Pogo Press include Frank M. Whiting, longtime director of the University of Minnesota theater; Biloine W. Young, respected St. Paul author; John T. Flanagan, Elizabeth Taylor and James T. Dunn; Barbara Stuhler, Thomas O’Sullivan, as well as several by Moira F. Harris. Gareth Hiebert, the Oliver Towne columnist for the Pioneer Press, also was a Pogo Press author.

Pogo Press also published books for various institutions and groups, including the League of Women Voters, the Hamm Foundation, the New Century Club of Saint Paul, the St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church, and the Kerlan Collection of children’s books at the University of Minnesota.

Pogo Press authors received Minnesota Book Awards in 1994 and 1998, and its authors were finalists in 1995, 1998, and 2001. The Quill & Tankard Award for the best beer book (2000) went to a Pogo Press author, as did the Hakluyt Award (1998) for the contribution of a Pogo Press author in the field of nautical literature, while another author was a nominee for the Barnard Hewitt Award for Outstanding Research in Theatre History (1989). The United States Information Agency selected a Pogo Press book to be a part of an exhibit representing the best in American publishing, and the book was displayed in fifty countries worldwide.

In the recent year, the focus on new books has also brought national and international attention to Finney Company. The award-winning publications include Nightlight, Space Station Science, A Blacksmithing Primer, Bed, Breakfast & Bike Florida, and the My Little Book Collection. With the addition of Pogo Press, Finney Company currently has more than 200 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 Pogo Press 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 customers worldwide,” Krysan said. For additional information about Finney Company visit www.finneyco.com or call (952) 469-6699.

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