Real Cities coverage from the scene will feature live chats with party officials and candidates including California Governor Gray Davis; former State Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown; Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore; and Doug Hattaway, national spokesman for the Gore 2000 campaign. Convention news and chats are available nationwide from all contributing Real Cities sites. In addition, a special strike force of reporters and photographers from the San Jose Mercury News, The Mercury News (the new San Francisco edition) and the Contra Costa Times is covering both the convention's political news as well as local angles.

"Giving consumers the opportunity to take part in local events even if they live elsewhere is what we're all about," said Lisa Romano, vice president of marketing and business development for KnightRidder.com. "Real Cities' visitors confirmed this with the popularity of our GOP interactive coverage last month; we experienced a 300 percent increase in traffic during the four days of the convention. We want consumers to know, especially those who can't be at the DNC in person, that we are there and we're delivering. We are the Web source users can turn to."

Real Cities sites such as BayArea.com, Cincinow.com, Miami.com, PittsburghFirst.com, DFW.com, KansasCity.com, TwinCities.com, Indy.com, Kentucky.com, Rockymountainnews.com; Philly.com, Charlotte.com, etc., will participate in the online convention package. Users can access the DNC coverage by visiting www.realcities.com/rc/elections or by visiting a Real Cities site and clicking on a convention icon or a Campaign 2000 tab. Real Cities editors and news producers are localizing the news for each city and region in the network.

Interactive chats with candidates and party officials are being promoted on Real Cities sites and will be linked to those sites on the days they occur. In addition to Willie Brown, Gray Davis and Doug Hattaway, other confirmed guests are Dave Barry, Miami Herald humor columnist; Steven Westly, an eBay vice president who is also a Democratic activist and delegate; Ellen Tauscher (D-CA); Zoe Lofgren (D-CA); Joseph Hoeffel (D-PA); Earl Hilliard (D-AL); as well as Mary Anne Ostrom, political writer for the San Jose Mercury News and Dan Borenstein, political editor for the Contra Costa Times. For an opposing view, Jim Gilmore, Republican Governor of Virginia, will also participate. More chats are expected; for an updated schedule of names and times, users can visit www.Politics.BayArea.com and click on "Live Chats."

Other features of Real Cities' coverage of the convention include a unique entertainment feature, Accept-o-tron, a Java form that will write a personalized acceptance speech for users who feed it a few words; a daily interactive poll on issues; and flash animations and slide shows of convention photojournalism. Audio and video of the candidates and their positions are provided to the Real Cities sites by FreedomChannel.com.

Real Cities' coverage is available either at www.realcities.com or at the individual city sites in the network.

About Real Cities:

Real Cities consists of a unique partnership network that brings together the best strengths of leading U.S. media and Internet companies including KnightRidder.com, Belo Corporation, Central Newspapers, E.W. Scripps, Macromedia, Inc., and Blade Communications. The result of this combined effort is a premier network of city and regional Web sites that consumers turn to for all things local. Real Cities' features and functionality empower consumers with information and tools to organize life's daily activities. The network helps consumers connect with and maximize their cities' resources by providing ways to stay informed, save time and live fuller and more entertaining lives. Real Cities offers a variety of online services covering news, sports, classified ads, entertainment, shopping, travel, health, sports, career channels, search, community publishing, events, interviews and commentary, Internet access, and archives.

Among Real Cities' member Web sites are BayArea.com, Cincinow.com, DFW.com, Indy.com, KansasCity.com, Kentucky.com, Miami.com, Philly.com, Ohio.com, PhoenixAZ.com, Charlotte.com, TwinCities.com and soon-to-be debuted, NorthJersey.com. BayArea.com is the regional Web site for the San Francisco Bay Area and includes the region's leading local newspapers, the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco edition, The Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times. KnightRidder.com, a leader in local information and services on the Web and founder of the Real Cities network is headquartered in San Jose, California. KnightRidder.com develops and manages the Internet properties of Knight Ridder, (NYSE:KRI), the nation's second largest newspaper publisher. KnightRidder.com is a separate Internet subsidiary.

Press contacts:

Cynthia Mallen Funnell

Real Cities

408-938-6076

cfunnell@realcities.com

Maya Esparza

PRx Inc. Real Cities

408-287-1700, ext. 120

maya_esparza@prxinc.com