SkyMall's Robert Worsley Named Arizona's 1999 Retail `Entrepreneur Of the Year' by Ernst & Young; Local Arizona E-Commerce Visionary Now Eligible For National Honors

Business Wire, July 15, 1999

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 15, 1999--

Robert Worsley, founder and chief executive officer of SkyMall Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYM) and the man behind the in-flight catalog company's shift to e-commerce, has been named "Entrepreneur of the Year(R)" in the retail category of Arizona's 1999 Ernst & Young's award program.

The award was given to the 10 top Arizona entrepreneurs from such diverse fields as healthcare, real estate, manufacturing and retailing. An independent panel of judges of local Arizona dignitaries from such fields as education, law, business and technology selected the winners.

Worsley and all local award recipients are now eligible to participate in the national "Entrepreneur of the Year" awards competition, the pre-eminent program honoring outstanding owners of fast-growing companies. The competition will take place at a ceremony in Palm Springs, Calif., on Nov. 13, 1999, as part of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Institute National Conference.

"I am honored to be a part of this distinguished group of entrepreneurs," said Worsley. "This has been a total team effort at SkyMall, where we are assembling the best and brightest in the world of e-shopping. We are also creating robust, entertaining and informative series of Web sites and other interactive technologies that we feel will be the most exciting on the Internet."

Through Worsley's direction, SkyMall has evolved from the largest in-flight catalog firm to a global e-commerce powerhouse. This year, SkyMall has made a $27 million investment in e-commerce with the launch of two Web sites: skymall.com and skymalltravel.com. The company has also shifted its order and fulfillment operations to a 100 percent Web-based system.

"Almost 80 percent of leading Americans who participated in a recent Ernst & Young survey indicated entrepreneurship as the defining trend of the business world in the 21st century," said Mark Stephens, Arizona director of entrepreneurial services for Ernst & Young LLP. "From that percentage alone, it seems that the recipients of the 1999 Entrepreneur Of The Year competition are poised to reap extraordinary benefits in the near future."

The "Entrepreneur of the Year" awards were founded by Ernst & Young LLP and nationally co-sponsored by USA Today, CNNfn and CNN, the Nasdaq-Amex Market Group and the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The awards are sponsored locally by The Citibank Private Bank, MARSH, Merrill Lynch, Sprint, Audio Visual Headquarters, Bowne, Bryan Cave, Events With Taste Catering, Imperial Bank, Snell & Wilmer, Business Wire, Cox Communications, KFNN AM 1510, and The Arizona Republic. Recipients of the Entrepreneur Of The Year award become lifetime members of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Hall of Fame.

SkyMall and skymall.com(R)

skymall.com, the e-commerce company of SkyMall Inc., Phoenix, is committed to fostering a high-quality one-to-one customer experience that exceeds expectations and engages customers in long-term relationships.

skymall.com offers high quality products and services in a one-stop shopping e-commerce Web site to millions of consumers using the Internet 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. Through distribution channels in airlines, hotels, at worksites and, in the future, over broadband technologies, SkyMall Inc. and skymall.com capitalize on agreements with more than 100 retailers, catalogs and information service partners to create e-commerce solutions for consumers and merchants. The SkyMall print catalog is a unique advertising vehicle that extends the company's reach to 70 percent of all domestic airline seat pockets and reaches more than 420 million people each year. For additional information, visit the company at http://www.skymall.com.

This news release includes statements that may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This information may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that would cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those factors detailed by SkyMall Inc. in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Note to Editors: SkyMall(R) is a Registered Trademark of SkyMall Inc. and skymall.com is a Trademark of skymall.com inc. Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) is a registered service mark of Ernst & Young LLP.