FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brooks, Wiley and Williams form Affinity Marketing Services

Grand Rapids, MI, June 25, 1996 -- Jay Brooks, Karen Wiley and Glenn Williams announced that they have joined together in partnership to provide marketing and merchandising services to the Christian bookselling and gospel music industries through their newly formed business, AFFINITY MARKETING SERVICES, which will be operated from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The partners worked together in marketing and merchandising for the past eight years at Family Bookstores, the largest Christian book chain in the country, and share a combined 50+ years in Christian retailing. Together, they hope to provide Christian retailers with the knowledge and resources they need to be successful and provide industry vendors with marketing support that will increase sales through retail outlets. "We have a passion for the Christian bookselling and gospel music industries, and especially for Christian retail," Brooks said, "We have a desire to utilize our skills and knowledge to bring more success to our industry."

During their years at Family Bookstores, the team was involved in and/or responsible for the development of many of the programs which have brought success to the 175+ store chain in recent years. "Our responsibilities and experiences were varied which helps to make a strong team," said Wiley, "Jay managed the advertising and promotions, production and database marketing teams, Glenn managed the buying and merchandising team for Christian music and most recently Bibles, and I managed events and author/artist relations." In addition to their extensive marketing and merchandising background, the team has experience in store management and operations, visual merchandising, and store layout and design.

The group has solicited feedback from professionals in both industries and recently organized a meeting in Nashville, TN with key management from several music companies present to help define how they should structure their services. "We wanted to have our customers define our business focus," said Williams, "We had an idea where we thought we might be going and they solidified it for us."

AFFINITY MARKETING SERVICES is a provider of marketing and merchandising support for the Christian bookselling and gospel music industries. Their mission is to serve their clients by understanding their needs and providing creative solutions promoting success. For more information you can contact them at 616.243.6095.