In a bid to distance itself from The Globe and Mail, Chapters Internet is preparing to spin off a separately branded Web site from its current ChaptersGlobe.com online bookstore.

The move may be the first step in a plan to launch an initial public offering for the Internet division of Chapters, says a well-placed source.

However, Lilly Buchwitz, marketing communications manager with Chapters Internet, would neither confirm nor deny reports of an IPO.

‘That’s at best right now a rumour, and I can’t speculate on rumours,’ she says.

According to the source, however, Chapters Internet does not feel that it is being well served by its alliance with Canada’s oldest national newspaper. Currently, The Globe and Mail provides content such as book reviews in exchange for the right to sell ad space on the site. Spinning off its own Chapters.ca site, separate from the Globe, would allow the online book vendor to sell advertising on the site.

Lib Gibson, general manager for Globe Information Services, confirms that Chapters is intending to launch a separate Web site at www.chapters.ca, but she expects the Globe’s partnership with Chapters to continue. While the new site will not be co-branded, she says, it will offer links to the original site.

‘They’re going to build some Chapters.ca presence in addition to the Globe presence. There’s definitely changes in the way we’re going to work together, but there’s no divorce, or animosity, or dislocation here.’

Buchwitz, however, denied that Chapters would even be moving to a separately-branded Web site. She maintains that the online book vendor is merely working to upgrade its current Web site, which is located at ChaptersGlobe.com.

‘The site we’re working on now will have some new features and new functionality and will be coming out in April but it’s (essentially) the same site that we have now.’