Real Cities Reaches Out to Local Communities With Community Publishing Tools From KOZ.com

Business Wire, April 20, 1999

RESEARCH TRIANGLE, N.C. and SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

April 20, 1999--

With the addition of Knight Ridder's Real Cities network of more than

45 city sites, KOZ.com now has the largest network of local

media affiliates worldwide

KOZ.com, the leader in extending real-world communities onto the Internet and Knight Ridder Real Cities, one of the fastest-growing city networks on the Web, announced today a joint agreement to provide community publishing tools throughout the Real Cities network.

"Community publishing represents a core value of Real Cities and connects our users in a way in which online city networks excel," said Kathy Yates, acting president of Knight Ridder New Media. "KOZ.com's Community Publishing System(tm) has tremendous potential for helping us strengthen our relationships in our communities, provide our users with powerful new tools and build upon consumer loyalty with our Real Cities network."

Knight Ridder Real Cities is a network of more than 45 Web sites spanning regional portals and city resource sites that provide local online services such as classified advertising, entertainment, online shopping, news, yellow page listings and archive services. KOZ.com's Community Publishing System (CPS) will provide the tools that link existing community organizations, institutions and agencies with their members, with each other and with the local Web audience.

"The adoption of CPS by Knight Ridder New Media, the recognized innovator in using interactive technologies, truly shows the growing momentum of the KOZ.com local media affiliate network," said Mike Moran, CEO of KOZ.com. "No other company provides the online community-building resources that we do. The quality of our CPS product combined with the breadth of our media affiliate network and the support of our affiliate marketing program makes KOZ.com the undisputed leader in the local online community market."

Knight Ridder New Media plans to deploy CPS throughout the entire Real Cities network and into several emerging online channels during 1999. For example, Real Cities' Philly.com will use CPS to unite little leagues, Scout troops, church groups, charities, cultural organizations and area non-profit groups online. Philly.com also will partner with a local youth soccer association that administers games and practices for more than 100,000 boys and girls in the area.

"The Internet is a global medium, but it has the power to bring local communities together and help them learn, buy, vote, work, play and worship," said Dan Miller, vice president for The Kelsey Group, an analyst firm in Princeton, N.J. "Up to now, there haven't been great systems for group publishing. But KOZ.com's CPS is a major step forward. With the kind of distribution announced today, KOZ.com is well positioned to empower thousands of groups on the Web, and ultimately, to help bridge the gap between e-commerce and local commerce."

Real Cities' Charlotte.com has integrated CPS in its That's Racin' (www.thatsracin.com) site creating a motorsports Fan Zone. More than 200 Web sites were set up by fans within the first 24 hours. Another recent example of Charlotte.com's use of KOZ's CPS is a new Web site created by Charlotte.com and the National Park Service. The site is devoted to preserving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, one of the nation's most enduring landmarks currently threatened by beach erosion (www.capehatteraslight.com). Individuals and organizations are able to keep track of the lighthouse as it is relocated.

Related Announcements

In related news KOZ.com today announced that MediaNews Group and Donrey Media will roll out CPS to 175 local newspaper sites. In total, KOZ.com's three new media partners maintain a circulation in excess of 15 million readers. KOZ.com also launched their Affiliate Marketing ToolKit that provides local media outlets with all the information, resources and coaching required to launch successful community Web site affiliates. Additionally KOZ.com announced the completion of its acquisition of the ichat(tm) product line and customer base from Acuity Corporation. The ichat line of market-leading, real-time chat, message boards and instant messaging products are now available directly through KOZ.com. A complete list of customers using CPS is available at www.koz.com.

About Knight Ridder New Media

Knight Ridder New Media, a leader in interactive information, is located in San Jose, Calif., and maintains more than 45 Web sites in its Real Cities network (www.realcities.com). Real Cities, one of the leading city networks on the Web today, consists of regional portals, city resource sites and a variety of online services in classifieds, entertainment, shopping, news, search and archives.

Knight Ridder (www.kri.com) is the nation's second largest newspaper publisher, with products in print and online. The company publishes 31 daily newspapers in 28 U.S. markets, reaching 8.9 million readers daily and 13.2 million on Sunday. Knight Ridder has investments in two newsprint mills and is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. In September 1998, the company was named the most innovative user of technology in the United States by InformationWeek magazine in its annual InformationWeek 500 listings.