Knight Ridder Real Cities' leading online achievements earned some of the most prestigious honors at the conference, including and EPpy award for "Outstanding Achievement by an Individual in Online Newspapering" for Knight Ridder New Media's Vice President of Technology and Operations, Chris Jennewein.

Jennewein has led the online technology efforts for the Real Cities network, starting with the introduction of the Mercury Center on America Online and on the Web. Under Jennewein's direction, Knight Ridder established such technological firsts as NewsLibrary.com online archive and the NewsHound.com agent/alert service, and became the first large newspaper group to publish all of its newspapers online. Jennewein also played a lead role in the development and deployment of Real Classifieds.

Other Real Cities site winners include El Nuevo Herald Digital receiving the EPpy award for Best Overall Online Service for circulation less than 100,000. Mercury Center won an EPpy for for the Best Special Section In A Newspaper Online Service for its Microsoft trial coverage. As the pioneering online edition of the San Jose Mercury News, Mercury Center combines superior, award-winning journalism and cutting-edge technology to provide in-depth news coverage and analysis of business, technology and culture.

"These awards acknowledge our commitment to excellence in the new media industry," said Kathy Yates, acting president, Knight Ridder New Media. "We appreciate the recognition of our industry peers." El Nuevo Herald Digital, with more than 1 million page views per month and the Internet product of The Miami Herald, is the number one source of U.S. news for the Spanish-speaking audience. El Nuevo Herald, in print, is published daily in Miami and read throughout Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean. EPpy judges said El Nuevo Herald does a great job of serving the Latino community, in both Florida and around the world.

Other top honorable mentions include Real Cities' KansasCity.com for Best Directory Application in a Newspaper Online Service. Kansascity.com is home to the most comprehensive searchable database of Kansas City-area Web sites. It is a regional portal that brings together a broad range of Kansas City links, information, e-mail services and Web resources.

Real Cities Classifieds received honorable mentions for Best Classified Section in a Newspaper Online Service. Real Cities Classifieds technology allows users to search all Knight Ridder properties from coast to coast. It also offers the option to buy print and Web classifieds online. Soon to be fully integrated throughout the Real Cities network, Real Cities Classifieds brings ease-of-use and flexibility to the world of online classified advertising.

About the EPpy Awards

The awards program, sponsored by Editor and Publisher Interactive, is the most distinguished in the industry, and has been a high point of the Interactive Newspapers Conference since 1996.

Company and Network Information

Knight Ridder New Media, a leader in interactive information, is located in San Jose, Calif., and maintains more than 40 Web sites in the Real Cities network (www.realcities.com). Real Cities, one of the leading city networks on the Web today, consists of city-resource sites and a variety of online services in classifieds, entertainment, shopping, news search and archives.

Knight Ridder (www.kri.com) is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with products in print and online. The company publishes 31 daily newspapers in 28 U.S. markets, reaching 9 million readers daily and 12.6 million on Sunday. Knight Ridder has investments in two newsprint mills and is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. In September, the company was named the most innovative user of technology in the United States by InformationWeek magazine in its annual InformationWeek 500 listings.

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Knight Ridder Real Cities is a registered trademark of Knight Ridder New Media.

*Statistics referenced in this news release are from: Jupiter Communications, Forrester Research, The Boston Consulting Group, Inteco and Clarke Martire and Bartolomeo

Contacts:

Cynthia Mallen Funnell Knight Ridder New Media (408) 938-8076 (408) 293-8600 cfunnell@realcities.com

Maritza Maldonado Pacifico, Inc.(for Knight Ridder) 408- 293-8600, Ext. 317 maritzam@pacifico.com