XBRL Symposium to Examine Impact on Investor Relations Industry and Financial Community; March 20th Event Sponsored by Business Wire and EDGAR Online

Business Wire, March 17, 2003

Business Editors

NOTE TO MEDIA: A logo is available at URL:

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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 2003

Business Wire and EDGAR(R) Online(R), Inc. (Nasdaq:EDGR) are co-sponsoring an investor relations symposium focusing on XBRL, the emerging global financial reporting platform that promises to have a substantial impact on the way that the financial community and news media access and analyze corporate information.

The March 20th conference brings together a prestigious panel of experts who will distill in layman's terms the benefits of XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language), and the need for the investor relations industry to understand its important implications in terms of how they disseminate data to key audiences.

The prominent panel includes:

-- Alfred R. Berkeley, vice chairman, NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc., will discuss how XBRL will increase the visibility of all listed companies;

-- Rob Blake, director of XBRL, Microsoft, will provide a guide to available XBRL tools for companies seeking to become XBRL-compatible;

-- Walter Hamscher, chairman, XBRL International, will examine how XBRL will improve corporate disclosure and control corporate compliance costs;

-- Paul Penler, principal, Ernst & Young, will look at how XBRL facilitates the accounting industry's role in auditing corporate financial disclosures, and

-- Mark Schnitzer, executive director, Morgan Stanley, will explain how XBRL enables analysts to work with corporate data more easily, and the resulting benefits to shareholders and other corporate stakeholders.

-- Liv A. Watson, director of XBRL, EDGAR Online, Inc., will serve as moderator.

Admission to the symposium, which is being held in midtown Manhattan between the hours of 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., is free to Business Wire members and EDGAR Online clients. CCBN, Business Wire's webcasting partner, will provide a live webcast of the event.

The webcast can be accessed at the following url: http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=29576&script= 1020&c=127541&eventId=722322&WebCastId=269429&StreamId=301154&wctype= 1&item_id=ew,722322,1&layout=-6

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field.)

ABOUT BUSINESS WIRE

Business Wire was founded in 1961 by its chairman/CEO, Lorry I. Lokey, veteran journalist and public relations executive.

Business Wire's multi-channel delivery network provides real-time, simultaneous access to key audiences--the news media, trade publications, institutional and individual investors, business-to-business decision-makers and consumers.

The company electronically disseminates some 1,000 full-text news releases daily to the news media, the Internet, online services and databases, and the global investment community. Business Wire has network access to some 60 international and national news agencies, financial information providers, and Web-based news services throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Business Wire has 26 U.S. offices, plus Frankfurt, London and Brussels offices, and reciprocal offices worldwide.

About EDGAR(R) Online(R), Inc.

EDGAR Online, Inc. (www.edgar-online.com) is a leader in the business information industry, specializing in the extraction, packaging and distribution of public company information contained in SEC filings. Based in Norwalk, Connecticut, with offices in Maryland and New York City, the company sells subscription products, data and services to financial institutions, corporations and law firms.

ABOUT CCBN

CCBN (Corporate Communications Broadcast Network) is the global leader in enabling direct communications between public companies and the investment community over the Internet. CCBN builds, manages and hosts the investor relations (IR) sections of Web sites for more than 2,500 public companies, providing in-depth shareholder information through interactive, multi-media solutions. In addition, CCBN hosts live and archived quarterly conference calls for more than 4,000 corporations each quarter.

A logo is available at URL:

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.031703/bb15