AssociationCentral.com, an online destination for trade association and nonprofit organization specialists, recently acquired trade book publishing firm Columbia Books Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition allows AssociationCentral to market and leverage its first proprietary catalog of books, which typically document industry trends in areas such as professional associations and not-for-profit organizations.
Before this announcement, AssociationCentral had been purely an information source for the trade association market, with more than 1,000 links to professional organizations, nonprofit groups and advocacy associations.
AssociationCentral, Bethesda, MD, will not sell books directly but will have a link to ColumbiaBooks.com.
Additionally, AssociationCentral's search engine will present viewers — who type in an interest in literature about trade associations and nonprofit organizations — with a link to ColumbiaBooks.com.
Columbia Books, Washington, has published trade books for 30 years. The company said it is in its best interest to operate as a whole subsidiary of the year-old AssociationCentral.
