Borders Adds TV Watching to Its Bookstores’ Entertainment

By LIA MILLER
Published: New York Times November 12, 2007

Borders bookstores — with their cafes, toys and games and large displays of movies and music — have never exactly been confused with, say, university libraries.

A new strategy at Borders will reinforce the message that its stores are not just about books: the company has been installing 37-inch flat-screen televisions to show original programming, advertisements, news and weather.

George L. Jones, the chief executive of the Borders Group, said each store would have two screens. The broadcast service, called Borders TV, has arrived in nearly 60 stores and is scheduled to reach an additional 250 stores by the end of February.

The screens are “not designed to be intrusive,” Mr. Jones said. Rather, he said, they are “part of a master plan to create content that will do several things for us,” like directing traffic to the Borders Web site and paving the way to more cross-promotional deals with large media companies.
Will literary-minded customers bristle at the intrusion, or will the screens be welcomed as fun? Mr. Jones has a firm opinion: at Borders, “you browse, buy a latte, read a magazine. It’s entertaining.” The televisions are “another way that we can bring knowledge and entertainment,” he said.

Borders’ partner in the venture is Ripple, a company that provides information like news, traffic and weather to televisions installed in public places. Ali Diab, a president of Ripple, said the company was founded three years ago and has similar arrangements with Jack-in-the-Box restaurants and Jiffy Lube. On the content side, Ripple has agreements with The New York Times, CBS, and E! Entertainment Television.

The advertisers that have bought time on Borders TV are all “household names,” Mr. Diab said. Ford, for instance will showcase its hybrid vehicles.
Mr. Jones said Borders customers tend to be “highly educated, more affluent” and spend an average of an hour in the store, making them catnip to many advertisers. “It’s becoming more and more difficult to reach people,” Mr. Jones said. “Newspapers are not as effective as they used to be. Television is not as easily reachable as it used to be. This becomes an attractive option.”