Womens-Fishing.com Debuts on Rivals.com Network, Joins Stickiest Sports Site on the Internet

Business Wire, April 25, 2000

Business Editors, Sports Writers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2000

Women's Fishing Online (www.womens-fishing.com) -- dedicated to covering all facets of international women's sportfishing -- launched today on Rivals.com, a leading online network of sports team and affinity channels. Women's Fishing Online is published and hosted by Lyla Foggia, the author of the critically acclaimed book, Reel Women: The World of Women Who Fish.

Designed to help women catch more fish, expand their skills, and enhance their time in the outdoors, the site offers daily updates on such topics as:

-- A live chat room and scheduled visits with renowned fishing authorities

-- A 24-hour message board

-- Audio and video capabilities.

-- And a showcase for readers' "big catch" photos and tales of how they hooked
them.

Women's Fishing Online is one of the first full-service interactive fishing sites exclusively for women, featuring:

-- A live chat room and scheduled visits with renowned fishing authorities

-- A 24-hour message board

-- Audio and video capabilities.

-- And a showcase for readers' "big catch" photos and tales of how they hooked
them.

Foggia, a professional writer for more than 20 years, as well as other top outdoor journalists and book authors write the site's original content. Foggia grew up in an outdoors family in her native Northwest. She began fishing in earnest in 1980, while stationed on location in bass-rich Central Florida as part of the film crew for "Cross Creek." After watching "A River Runs Through It," Foggia became a devotee of fly fishing and landed her first steelhead, a 35-incher on a 9/10 wt. 15-foot speyrod, on the river that runs in front of her Mt. Hood home. Beginning in 1993, Foggia spent two years researching and writing Reel Women -- which has become a standard in the sport as the first chronicle of how women pioneered a place in angling history during the last 500 years.

Upon its release, Reel Women was praised by outdoors writers throughout the country and selected as the "Best Fishing Book of 1995" by PanAngler. It was honored with excerpts in the American Museum of Fly Fishing's scholarly journal. Foggia has also toured North America as a keynote speaker and lecturer on women's angling.

"When I wrote the book, I never dreamed that something called the Internet would eventually hook-up angling women around the globe," Foggia says. "I truly consider this a milestone in the evolution of women's fishing. Thanks to Rivals.com, a company that cares passionately about sports, women finally have a site that reflects their presence, interests, and accomplishments -- in a sport that notably was officially launched by a woman, Dame Juliana Berners, in 1496."

"Women's Fishing Online is a great addition to the Rivals.com network, attracting a growing demographic of anglers," said Brett Pauly, Rivals.com's National Outdoors Editor. "Visitors to Womens-fishing.com can enjoy an online community of women anglers who share their passion."

Of the nation's 43.6 million anglers who fished more than once in 1998, women comprised 31.3% of all freshwater anglers and 28.6% of all saltwater anglers, according to the National Sports Goods Association. Freshwater fishing also ranked among the top 10 women's participatory sports in 1998 -- outperforming such popular recreational activities as golf (No. 23; 5.7 million) and alpine skiing (No. 32; 3.1 million). Women's passion for fishing has remained a constant over the years: when the NSGA began conducting its annual sports survey in 1984, women represented 32.6% of all freshwater and 27.3% of all saltwater anglers.

Based in Seattle, Rivals.com is a leading infrastructure services company that aggregates hundreds of Web site communities in one network. The Rivals.com network consists of hundreds of team and affinity channels, with more than 700 writers and experts who deliver leading in-depth team and player coverage. The proprietary Rivals.com technology allows publishers to input their expert commentary and news information without having to program or design the site. The Rivals.com business model enables Rivals.com to add new sites with little added cost. Rivals.com is both the No. 1 content property as well as the No. 4 Web property in stickiness on the Internet(a), ranks No. 1 in stickiness among sports sites(b) and has more than 5.4 million real unique users(c). Investors include Hummer Winblad Venture Partners (www.humwin.com), Intel Corporation (www.intel.com/), News Corp.'s News Digital Media (NYSE:NWS), producer of FOX Sports Online (http://www.foxsports.com/), The Phoenix Partners (www.phoenixvc.com) and SOFTBANK Capital Partners (www.sbcp.com).

RIVALS.COM DATA SOURCES:

(a) Source: Nielsen//NetRatings Jan. 2000, measurement of Web

properties where unique unduplicated visitors spent the most time

per person (hrs.:min.:sec.), includes properties with a unique

audience greater than 300,000 during the month of January:

eBay.com 2:05:48, Pogo 1:09:15, eTrade 1:08:41, Rivals.com 1:06:55