HarperCollins Publishers Highlights the Importance of Literacy with #WhyIRead Social Media and Giving Campaign

HarperCollins Publishers Highlights the Importance of Literacy with #WhyIRead Social Media and Giving Campaign

Donates $200,000 to Literacy-Related Charities; Announces Consumer Sweepstakes

NEW YORK, NY (May 1, 2017) - HarperCollins Publishers today announced #WhyIRead, a social media and giving campaign that encourages book lovers everywhere to share what reading means to them. The initiative aims to highlight the importance of literacy and is a part of a global campaign commemorating the company's 200th anniversary.

The centerpiece of the yearlong campaign is www.hc.com/200, a website showcasing HarperCollins' storied history and influence. The site features many HarperCollins authors, including Robyn Carr, Michael Chabon, Bernard Cornwell, Neil Gaiman, Bob Goff, and Veronica Roth, sharing their thoughts on why they read, why they write, and what books have influenced them (www.hc.com/whyiread). Readers are encouraged to join the conversation and share their own experiences and passion for reading via social media, using #WhyIRead and #hc200.

As part of HarperCollins' ongoing commitment to ensuring that reading remains accessible to all, the company will also donate $200,000 to a collection of literacy-related charities selected by its employees, and made possible by a grant from News Corp, the parent company of HarperCollins. The charities receiving sponsorships support a wide variety of causes that are important to HarperCollins, including promoting education and literacy for all, supporting authors and their freedom of expression, and championing literature that reflects and honors the lives of all people. They include: First Book, National Coalition Against Censorship, Room to Read, United Through Reading, and We Need Diverse Books.

HarperCollins has had a long, storied history supporting authors and the printed word, and we've been passionate about supporting literacy and education since the company was founded in 1817, said Brian Murray, President and CEO, HarperCollins Publishers. The positive impact on literacy rates during the past two centuries alongside HarperCollins' innovations and growth lets us know it's a more-than-worthy cause to continue to support.

In conjunction with this initiative, HarperCollins will collaborate with First Book to launch the #WhyIRead sweepstakes, in which readers can enter for a chance to win one of two grand prizes (an iPad mini loaded with a collection of HarperCollins e-books) or four runner-up prizes (a collection of HarperCollins e-books). In addition, grand prize winners can help give to their community by recommending a First Book-eligible school or program serving kids in need to receive a donation of 1,000 books. The sweepstakes will run from May 1 through June 7, 2017. Learn more and enter at www.hc.com/hc200sweepstakes.

The #WhyIRead Sweepstakes is sponsored by HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007. Must be a legal US resident 18 or over. Sweepstakes begins May 1, 2017 at 12:00 p.m. (ET) and ends on June 7, 2017 at 12:00 p.m. (ET). Offer void outside the US and wherever prohibited or restricted by law. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. For more information and Official Rules visit www.hc.com/hc200sweepstakes.

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About HarperCollins

HarperCollins Publishers is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 18 countries. With two hundred years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year in 17 languages, and has a print and digital catalog of more than 200,000 titles. Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, and the Man Booker Prize. HarperCollins, headquartered in New York, is a subsidiary of News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) and can be visited online at corporate.HC.com.

Contacts

Erin Crum

Erin.Crum@harpercollins.com

(212) 207-7223

Marni Raitt

marni@firstraittcommunications.com

(323) 633-6120

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