"Knight Ridder and Real Media have proven track records building online advertising networks and custom sites that meet the needs of advertisers," said Kathy Yates, Vice President/Business Development of Knight Ridder New Media. "Together we can rapidly produce a very focused network, one that has efficient reach for national advertisers, a network that can react quickly if advertisers prefer designated combinations of top metro markets."

The Real Cities Network was introduced last October. The Real Cities sites are distinguished by the deep and rich community information they provide - information that is unavailable from any other sources on the Web.

Yates said the Real Cities announcement prompted a flurry of inquiries from a number of other newspaper-based city sites wanting to explore whether the network would be open to partners in other cities. "We heard from both publishers and advertisers that the Real Cities concept was very powerful," she said, "and would only become more so with wider representation. So we are expanding the network to other city sites that fulfill the Real Cities mission of connecting advertisers with people on community-based sites of high quality.

The expanded Real Cities network will be represented exclusively by Real Media.

Dave Morgan, President of Real Media, said: "Real Cities is the kind of network that advertisers have told us they want to buy. It offers the strength and reputation of America's leading media companies and the power and creativity of the interactive media."

Even before the expansion, Real Cities' 28 markets represented aggregate Effective Buying Income of $541 billion. The expansion is expected to double Real Cities' reach and add significant coverage in the top 20 markets.

"Real Media was created in 1995 to serve the needs of the newspaper industry's emerging new media efforts," Morgan said. "We have the relationships, the expertise, even the ad management software in place to pursue aggressively the national ad market through the Real Cities network."

Cities joining the Real Cities network will be announced soon.

Knight Ridder New Media, located in San Jose, Calif. is a division of Knight Ridder. Knight Ridder is the nation's second largest newspaper publisher, with products in print and online. The company publishes 32 daily newspapers in 28 U.S. markets, reaching 9.3 million readers daily and 12.9 million on Sunday and maintains 39 Web sites. Knight Ridder is headquartered in Miami, Florida. Its New Media division is based in San Jose, CA.

Real Media Inc. is a New York-based Internet advertising solutions company backed by Swiss media conglomerate PubliGroupe. Since 1995, Real Media has offered creative Internet marketing solutions to advertisers and agencies worldwide. The company has experienced rapid overseas growth, recently opening offices in London, Paris, Lausanne, Zurich and Frankfurt in conjunction with PubliGroupe. Real Media is currently doing business in the U.S., South America, Central America, South Africa and Canada.

Contacts:

Cynthia Funnell National Communications Manager Knight Ridder New Media (408) 938-6076 cfunnell@newmedia.kri.com

Dave Morgan President Real Media Inc. (212) 725-4537 davem@realmedia.com