Good Housekeeping and Women.com Get Out the Vote

Business Wire, Nov 1, 1999

SAN MATEO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 1999--

Public Policy Experts Join Effort To Create First

Polling Place For Women On The Web

Women.com Networks, Inc., (Nasdaq:WOMN) (www.women.com) and Good Housekeeping today announced the launch of Majority 2000: Women Count -- a landmark initiative to research and report on the single most influential demographic in the American voting electorate: women.

Women voters -- who have outnumbered men voters for 35 years -- were responsible for electing President Bill Clinton to a second term in 1996 with the largest gender gap in national voting history. The centerpiece of the Women.com/Good Housekeeping effort is a first-ever national presidential primary election for women voters on the Internet, scheduled for March 1-3.

Good Housekeeping magazine and Women.com -- in conjunction with pollster Harris Interactive -- will leverage the power of the Internet and traditional surveying methods to provide uniquely valuable, in-depth information about the presidential election and the issues of greatest importance to women. The trio will kick-off this coverage and Women.com's News & Politics channel in early January, and use this site to report the results of scientific surveys conducted with American women both online and by telephone.

The effort will feature an unprecedented event on March 1-3: a presidential primary election for women voters. Before voters head to the polls in the "Super Tuesday" primary, the four-plus million women who visit Women.com each month will be invited to an online polling booth. The results will be reported after Women.com researchers and Harris Interactive conduct online exit polls and telephone surveys of women offline.

"Given the important role women will play in the 2000 elections, Good Housekeeping is delighted to partner with Women.com and Harris Interactive," said Ellen Levine, Editor in Chief of Good Housekeeping."

A distinguished panel of public policy experts will help guide Majority 2000: Women Count. The panel includes the following leaders in education, crime and safety, family, and economics and Social Security: Center for Equal Opportunity President Linda Chavez; Delaine Eastin, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction; National Center for Women and Policing Chief Penny Harrington; The Brookings Institution Center on Social and Economic Dynamics co-director Carol Graham; Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery and Judy Ricker, Vice President, Research for Harris Interactive. The panel will be co-chaired by Good Housekeeping Editor in Chief Ellen Levine and Women.com founder Ellen Pack.

The advisory panel will analyze results of the national survey, discuss public policy implications of gender, candidate and political party platforms, and provide editorial contributions to Women.com throughout the campaign season. The result will offer Women.com visitors access to in-depth coverage, real-time reporting and an opportunity to discuss and debate the issues of specific interest to women.

"Women have been the voting majority in this country since 1964. Now, for the first time, the Internet can be leveraged to track, analyze and perhaps even predict the women's vote," noted panel co-chair Ellen Pack. "Women.com, Good Housekeeping and Harris Interactive make a credible combination and are uniquely positioned to leverage a large scale polling sample, scientific research, and a thorough analysis of the issues important to women voters."

While informal opinion polls and headlines are ongoing at Women.com, official election coverage begins in January with the unveiling of a new News & Politics channel on Women.com. The Women.com primary will be part of a year of coverage by Women.com Networks and Good Housekeeping that includes several opinion surveys and survey-based issues reporting. In addition, Women.com Networks will host "Earn My Vote," an op-ed column written by audience members to presidential candidates as well as regular community events and chats.

About Good Housekeeping

Good Housekeeping, founded 114 years ago, reaches 26 million readers every month. It is published by Hearst Magazines, a unit of Hearst Communications, Inc., the world's largest publisher of monthly magazines, with 16 U.S. titles and 98 international editions distributed in more than 100 countries.

Of these, Hearst publishes nine monthly magazines in the United Kingdom through its wholly-owned subsidiary, The National Magazine Company Limited.

About Women.com Networks, Inc.

Women.com (www.women.com) is a leading Internet network dedicated to women, featuring award-winning original programming, personalized services, community and online shopping. A comprehensive network for women, Women.com is comprised of more than 90,000 pages of content organized into 20 topical channels, including Fashion & Beauty; Horoscopes; Food; Sex & Romance; Health; Career & Money; Pregnancy; and Home.

Women.com also offers extensive membership services and benefits, including personalized content, personal home pages, e-mail, and access to community forums and clubs. In addition, the company enjoys strategic relationships with The Hearst Corporation and Rodale, enabling Women.com to offer an online newsstand featuring content from 12 of the world's leading women's magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Prevention and Redbook.