MBI Publishing Company and SPEED Channel formally announced today the kickoff of a new Internet bookstore partnership, in which Motorbooks.com, MBI's automotive enthusiast-driven consumer site, provides product, merchandising, customer service and fulfillment for SPEED's online bookstore, Speedtvbooks.com.

The site, which is part of Speedtv.com, went live May 9 and offers more than 2,600 MBI titles in seven gearhead-oriented categories, including cars, racing, motorcycles, repair & restoration, trucks, nostalgia and calendars. From entering the bookstore, through purchase and delivery, the Speedtvbooks.com customer has one seamless experience.

"SPEED Channel is the epitome of automotive enthusiast media, and we're excited to work with an organization that covers such a broad range of content that so closely matches our own," said Brian Wright, MBI's vice president of direct-to-enthusiast sales and marketing. "From hot rods and how-tos, to the wide spectrum of auto racing, this is a great fit for both companies."

"Over the past several months, SPEED Channel has aggressively searched for initiatives that both strengthen the network's brand and establish SPEEDTV.com as a one-stop shop for motor sports fans and automotive and motorcycle enthusiasts," said SPEED Channel spokesman Erik Arneson. "Allowing SPEED viewers to tap into the extensive MBI library through the network Web site is just another way we have found to fuel the passion of our audience. MBI's depth and breadth of topics matching SPEED Channel programming is a perfect match for that audience."

This agreement is part of MBI's new Web partnership program that provides companies with the products and interface to sell books on their e-commerce sites. "This opportunity provides other automotive enthusiast-related sites - both commerce- and content-driven - and their customers access to our incredibly wide selection of enthusiast products," Wright explained.

MBI has a similar Web bookstore relationship with magazine publisher Primedia Automotive Group, supplying approximately 90 percent of that company's online bookstore collection.