The business was bought in 1971 by Leonard Riggio. He oversaw the growth of the business. In 1974, Barnes & Noble became the first bookstore to advertise on television. A year later, the company became the first bookseller in America to discount books. It sold "New York Times" best-selling titles at 40% off the publishers’ list price. During the 1970s and 1980s, Barnes & Noble opened smaller discount stores. These were eventually phased out in favor of larger stores. They also began to publish their own books to be sold to mail-order customers. These titles were mostly low price reissues of out-of-print titles. Selling them through mail-order catalogs allowed Barnes & Noble to reach new customers nationwide.