Imagine Media Joins ESRB's "Truth-In-Advertising" Program

Business Wire, June 21, 2000

Business Editors/High-Tech & Publishing Writers

BRISBANE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 21, 2000

Imagine Media, Inc., America's fastest growing publisher, has agreed to adopt the Entertainment Software Rating Board's (ESRB) Advertising Review Council (ARC) "truth-in-advertising" principles and guidelines for all of its interactive entertainment publications. These principles and guidelines govern the content of ads for computer and video game software with the purpose of ensuring that all ads accurately describe the content of the games.

MaryAnn Kearns, publishing director for Imagine Media's entertainment division, noted, "Imagine Media welcomes the opportunity to proactively address the concerns and issues regarding explicit advertising. As a Tier 1 supporter to the ARC, we recognize our responsibility in ensuring the advertisements within our publications best represent the titles we help market and sell."

Doug Faust, publisher for Imagine Media's console titles replied, "The games market is evolving into a mainstream mass-market form of entertainment. As games are more acceptable to a broader audience it's only appropriate that we begin treating this amazing art form in a responsible manner as befits other forms of entertainment such as movies, television and music."

Matt Firme, vice president/editorial director added, "I'm glad these ARC guidelines allow everyone the opportunity to focus on what's really important -- making and marketing great games. The overuse of gore in advertising to stand out from the pack obscures the real creativity inherent in the games."

In order to receive a product rating through the ESRB, all software manufacturers are required to sign on to ARC's Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Advertising Practices. If a company is found to have violated any of the principles or guidelines, it is notified by ARC and asked to adjust its advertising to comply. If the company fails to make a genuine attempt to correct the advertisements, the company could face a number of sanctions including the revocation of the title's rating, public notice of violation, referral of the violation to appropriate government agencies, and/or payment of fines.

The Imagine Media publishers have agreed to refuse any ads that do not meet the following ARC principles and guidelines:

-- An advertisement should accurately reflect the nature and content
   of the product it represents and the rating issued (i.e., an
   advertisement should not mislead the consumer as to the product's
   true character).

-- An advertisement should not glamorize or exploit the ESRB rating
   of a product (e.g., an advertisement with a tag line that states:
   "banned by the ESRB" or "a 'T' rating has never been pushed this
   far," etc.).

-- All advertisements should be created with a sense of
   responsibility to the public.

-- No advertisement should contain content likely to cause serious or
   widespread offense to the average consumer.

About Imagine Media, Inc.

Imagine Media (www.imaginemedia.com) is America's fastest-growing publisher of magazines and web sites. Its success is based on the "passion" strategy: creating products that excite tech-savvy consumers. It recently merged into The Future Network plc (London: FNET, www.futurenet.com), the media company founded by Imagine's CEO Chris Anderson in 1985. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Imagine Media's publications sell in excess of 1.5 million copies per month. Its market-leading titles include: Business 2.0, Games Business, MacAddict, Maximum Linux, Maximum PC, Next Generation, Official Sega Dreamcast Magazine, PC Gamer, PSM: 100 percent Independent PlayStation Magazine, Total Games, and on the web: DailyRadar (www.DailyRadar.com), the MacDaily Network (www.macdaily.com) and MaximumPC Network (www.maximumpc.com).

About The Future Network Plc

Future was founded in the UK in 1985. Today it publishes over 125 magazines worldwide and has extensive online activities attracting the attention of 4.6 million unique visitors and generating over 58 million page views per month. It is the world's fastest growing major publisher; the leading publisher of video games and home computing magazines in the UK, France, Italy, Poland and the US; and ranks as the fourth largest magazine publisher in the UK. Future employs over 1,500 people in offices in Bath, London, San Francisco, New York, Paris, Milan, Munich, Rotterdam and Wroclaw. Future was floated on the London Stock Exchange in June 1999 and has a current market capitalization of over (pound)1 billion. Future's Internet activities serve the PC, Mac, Games, Music and Football communities in the US and the UK with fast-growing sites like maximumpc.com, maximumpc.co.uk, dailyradar.com, intermusic.com, and ufn.co.uk. Future's Web sites and Web networks provide rich, community and information-based services to people in these and related markets worldwide.

About the ESRB

The ESRB is an independent, non-profit rating system established in 1994 by the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), the trade group representing computer and video game makers. To date, ESRB has rated over 5,000 computer and video games. ESRB also rates Internet games and interactive web sites.