Organization (Notes)	12 Months Ended
Apr. 28, 2018
Organization	Note 1. Organization Description of Business Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (“BNED”) is one of the largest contract operators of physical and virtual bookstores for college and university campuses and K-12 institutions across the United States, one of the largest textbook wholesalers and inventory management hardware and software providers, and a leading provider of digital education services. Through our Barnes & Noble College (“BNC”) and MBS Textbook Exchange (“MBS”) subsidiaries, we operate 1,444 physical and virtual bookstores and serve more than 6 million students, delivering essential educational content and tools within a dynamic retail environment. Additionally, through our Student Brands subsidiary and associated websites, a leading direct-to-student subscription-based writing services business, we offer services to approximately 100,000 subscribers, by offering student assistance through the writing process and journey. The strengths of our business, as discussed below, includes our ability to compete by developing new products and solutions to meet market needs, our large footprint with direct access to students and faculty, our well-established, deep relationships with partners and stable, long-term contracts and our well-recognized brands. We expect to continue to grow our business by introducing scalable and advanced digital solutions focused largely on the student, increasing market share with new accounts, and expanding our strategic opportunities through acquisitions and partnerships. As demand for new, enhanced, and more affordable products and services increase in the rapidly changing education landscape, we strive to evolve our business model and enhance our solutions. We continue to aggressively innovate and collaborate with our partners to provide solutions that extend well beyond course materials sourcing and sales, to include new digital services that support successful student outcomes. We aim to be an even stronger partner for schools and meet customer needs by expanding our physical and virtual bookstore service capabilities, courseware offerings and digital platform services. Technology-enabled learning is a rapid growth area in the higher education industry, as a growing number of students are enrolling in online services to complement print and digital course materials and classroom activities. We continue to enhance our digital content and services in an efficient, low-cost/high-value manner to complement our course materials business. The implementation of our core digital strategy relies on our direct access to students from our bookstore operations, where we can attach our existing and future suite of digital products and services both online and in our stores. We are ready to meet the digital demand with our virtual bookstore and e-commerce solutions. We focus on providing affordable solutions, such as our First Day™ inclusive access program, in which course materials, including e-content, are offered at a reduced price through a course materials fee, and delivered to students digitally on or before the first day of class. Additionally, our LoudCloud Courseware™, is a turnkey solution for colleges and universities that offers advanced, affordable learning materials built on a high-quality foundation of OER and enhanced with digital content that includes videos, activities and auto-graded practice assessments that faculty can easily customize to align with class objectives. LoudCloud Courseware™ significantly reduces course material costs for students and enables easier implementation for faculty. We offer our Student Brands solutions focused on providing students assistance through the writing process and journey. We offer these online solutions to students via internet search engine optimization ("SEO"), as well as by marketing directly to students in our BNC and MBS physical and virtual bookstore footprint. We believe that our strategic actions over the last three years, including the acquisitions of LoudCloud Systems, Inc. ("LoudCloud"), MBS and Student Brands, respectively, and ongoing development of courseware, have substantially enhanced our competitive position. Fiscal 2018 was a transformational period in which we began to leverage our newly-expanded customer base and distribution channels to broaden our reach to students and deepen our institutional partnerships. We continue to focus on providing product and service offerings designed to address the most pressing issues in higher education, including affordable and accessible course materials and products designed to drive and improve student outcomes. Effective in the fourth quarter of Fiscal year 2018, we have three reportable segments: BNC, MBS, and Digital Student Solutions ("DSS"), as described below. Prior to the fourth quarter of Fiscal year 2018, BNC and MBS were previously our only reportable segments. For additional information related to our strategies, operations and segments, see Part I - Item 1. Business and Part II - Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 1. Segment Reporting.

Note 1. Organization

Description of Business

Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (“BNED”) is one of the largest contract operators of physical and virtual bookstores for college and university campuses and K-12 institutions across the United States, one of the largest textbook wholesalers and inventory management hardware and software providers, and a leading provider of digital education services. Through our Barnes & Noble College (“BNC”) and MBS Textbook Exchange (“MBS”) subsidiaries, we operate 1,444 physical and virtual bookstores and serve more than 6 million students, delivering essential educational content and tools within a dynamic retail environment. Additionally, through our Student Brands subsidiary and associated websites, a leading direct-to-student subscription-based writing services business, we offer services to approximately 100,000 subscribers, by offering student assistance through the writing process and journey.

The strengths of our business, as discussed below, includes our ability to compete by developing new products and solutions to meet market needs, our large footprint with direct access to students and faculty, our well-established, deep relationships with partners and stable, long-term contracts and our well-recognized brands. We expect to continue to grow our business by introducing scalable and advanced digital solutions focused largely on the student, increasing market share with new accounts, and expanding our strategic opportunities through acquisitions and partnerships.

As demand for new, enhanced, and more affordable products and services increase in the rapidly changing education landscape, we strive to evolve our business model and enhance our solutions. We continue to aggressively innovate and collaborate with our partners to provide solutions that extend well beyond course materials sourcing and sales, to include new digital services that support successful student outcomes. We aim to be an even stronger partner for schools and meet customer needs by expanding our physical and virtual bookstore service capabilities, courseware offerings and digital platform services.

Technology-enabled learning is a rapid growth area in the higher education industry, as a growing number of students are enrolling in online services to complement print and digital course materials and classroom activities. We continue to enhance our digital content and services in an efficient, low-cost/high-value manner to complement our course materials business. The implementation of our core digital strategy relies on our direct access to students from our bookstore operations, where we can attach our existing and future suite of digital products and services both online and in our stores.

We are ready to meet the digital demand with our virtual bookstore and e-commerce solutions. We focus on providing affordable solutions, such as our First Day™ inclusive access program, in which course materials, including e-content, are offered at a reduced price through a course materials fee, and delivered to students digitally on or before the first day of class. Additionally, our LoudCloud Courseware™, is a turnkey solution for colleges and universities that offers advanced, affordable learning materials built on a high-quality foundation of OER and enhanced with digital content that includes videos, activities and auto-graded practice assessments that faculty can easily customize to align with class objectives. LoudCloud Courseware™ significantly reduces course material costs for students and enables easier implementation for faculty.

We offer our Student Brands solutions focused on providing students assistance through the writing process and journey. We offer these online solutions to students via internet search engine optimization ("SEO"), as well as by marketing directly to students in our BNC and MBS physical and virtual bookstore footprint.

We believe that our strategic actions over the last three years, including the acquisitions of LoudCloud Systems, Inc. ("LoudCloud"), MBS and Student Brands, respectively, and ongoing development of courseware, have substantially enhanced our competitive position. Fiscal 2018 was a transformational period in which we began to leverage our newly-expanded customer base and distribution channels to broaden our reach to students and deepen our institutional partnerships. We continue to focus on providing product and service offerings designed to address the most pressing issues in higher education, including affordable and accessible course materials and products designed to drive and improve student outcomes.

Effective in the fourth quarter of Fiscal year 2018, we have three reportable segments: BNC, MBS, and Digital Student Solutions ("DSS"), as described below. Prior to the fourth quarter of Fiscal year 2018, BNC and MBS were previously our only reportable segments. For additional information related to our strategies, operations and segments, see Part I - Item 1. Business and Part II - Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 1. Segment Reporting.