The Star Tribune became the third news-industry website to debut enhanced services for NFL fans using Clickshare Service Corp's customizable user-registration services, federated (multi-site) authentication and subscription or per-item billing of digital-content transactions. Both DallasNews.com and DenverPost.com offered NFL newsletters for the Cowboys and Broncos in their 2001-2002 seasons.

"As news websites explore enhanced services to extend and deepen relationships with online customers, research is showing many users will pay for specialized sports information," said Ben Welter, startribune.com editor. "PurplePlus is loaded with extra value for confirmed Viking fans worldwide."

So far, fans from more than 35 states (plus Washington, D.C., China, Canada, Japan, Germany and Kuwait) have signed up for startribune.com.s exclusive Vikings coverage. The Purple Plus lineup includes analysis and commentary, deep statistics, more than 40 years of archival stories and photos, live chats, multimedia, a weekly audio roundtable, postgame audio, and a weekly forecasting game with cash prizes.

Purple Plus costs $4.95 a month, $19.95 for six months or $29.95 for a year. The first 2,000 subscribers are receiving a Purple Plus foam brick. "It's for throwing at the TV or radio when the ref blows a call," Welter said. Game coverage, breaking news, player profiles, basic stats and selected photos and audio clips remain available for free in startribune.com's Purple Page area, www.startribune.com/vikings.

Purple Plus is the first application for The Clickshare Service by startribune.com. The site is also planning to use Clickshare registration, subscription and shared-authentication services for subscription to a package of crossword and other word puzzles from uclick.com, a unit of Andrews McMeel/Universal Press, another Clickshare partner.

About Star Tribune and McClatchy
The Star Tribune Company, a news and information company serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, is a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company of Sacramento, Calif. (NYSE:MNI). Star Tribune produces the Star Tribune newspaper, one of the top 20 largest newspapers in the nation, with a daily circulation of 405,459 and a Sunday circulation of 669,290 (per Audit Bureau of Circulation report 03/02). The company also produces a variety of direct marketing, niche print, and electronic services and products. Its Web site, www.startribune.com, is the most frequently used local news and information service for the Twin Cities market, with more than 40 million page views per month. For more information, go to www.startribune.com/company or www.mcclatchy.com.

About Clickshare
The Clickshare Service is an Internet transaction infrastructure for shared authentication and single sign-on enabling privacy-protected purchasing of text, music, video, software, and other products and services. Clickshare is taking the lead in rolling out a single sign-on, federated-authentication infrastructure for the newspaper industry.

With Clickshare, consumers have one account at a most-trusted website and buy from other websites without having to pass around a credit-card number, repeatedly register or give out personal information. Banks, ISPs, associations, retailers, wireless and other telecommunications carriers use it to enhance, extend and share customer relationships with publishers and entertainment providers.

Clickshare's clients and partners include Gannett Midwest Publishing, MultiService Corp., Belo Corp., MediaNews Corp., Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, Comtex News Network Inc., China Online Inc., HomeTips.com, uclick.com (Andrews McMeel/Universal Press), the Ogden [Utah] Standard-Examiner, the Everett [Wash.] Herald (Washington Post Co.), the Worcester [Mass.] Telegram & Gazette (New York Times Co.), and others.

Privately held Clickshare has offices in Williamstown, Mass. Its investors include Sawgrass Seacoast Investors LLC, the University of Massachusetts, Comtex News Network Inc., MultiService Corp., and private individuals, including founding executives of PeopleSoft Inc., and the former publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Chicago Sun-Times. Its executives, board and advisors include veterans of the publishing and financial-services industries.

-- 30 --
FOR MORE INFORMATION:

For the Star Tribune:
Ben Taylor 1-612-673-7457 [btaylor@startribune.com]

For Clickshare:
Edward Bride 1-413-442-7718 [edbride@clickshare.com]
Bill Densmore, 1-413-458-8001 [densmore@clickshare.com]