EVERETT, Wash., Jan. 6, 2003 -- The Everett [Wash.] Herald has deployed the Clickshare Service Corp. transaction platform, and is now selling archived editorial content online. News archives since 1997 are now available for viewing and personal-use downloading 30 days after initial publication, for periods ranging from $3.95 a day to $149.95 a year.

Unlike some other approaches that require a third party to host the transaction site, Clickshare enables the content owner to preserve the graphics, links and location of the original web pages and be part of a federated-authentication service. Mark Briggs, new media editor and manager, said the paper chose Clickshare over archive services that would have required reformatting of news into text format -- losing context or background -- and because Clickshare uniquely allowed The Herald to maintain the primary link with its customers.

"Clickshare enabled us to have more control over what was going on in our subscriber base," said Briggs. "It was the only way we could keep the content on our own server and not forfeit account control."

With a circulation 61,000, the Herald is the daily newspaper of choice for residents of Snohomish and Island counties, 30 miles north of Seattle. The paper and its website, [www.heraldnet.com], are owned by The Washington Post Co. As the service grows, Briggs said the newspaper might consider converting pre-1997 articles, before the company's website was launched, for online availability.

"We are delighted to welcome the Everett Herald into the growing community of Clickshare-enabled sites," said Rick Lerner, Clickshare CEO. "Separate and apart from the opportunity to share content with our user community, which numbers more than 200,000, Clickshare's news and entertainment web partners recognize the importance of account control. They are increasingly choosing Clickshare because we leave full control over content and customers with the individual paper."

The vast majority of newspapers in a 2001 research report from Advanced Interactive Media Group, L.L.C. [AIM Group] are selling some form of content online. Owners of digital content -music, news, weather, software, games, movies and other entertainment-have long been predicting that Internet-based commerce could overtake physical distribution for their wares.

The total market for paid online content in the U.S. grew to $361.4 million for the third quarter of 2002, a 14% gain over the previous quarter and a 105.3% gain over Q3 2001, according to a ComScore Networks study commissioned by the Online Publishers Association.

While newspapers have no plans to supplant print, the lack of a reliable, secure payment mechanism has deterred the growth of supplementary online content sales. The payment issue and the desire to maintain control and management of customer information, rather than providing all that information to third parties, have combined to frustrate market acceptance and growth in all areas of e-content sales.

The Clickshare Service enables content to be purchased a-la-carte or, in the case of the Everett Herald and some other newspapers, by subscription.

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 leading rollout of 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.

Among Clickshare's news industry partners are Gannett Co. Inc.'s Wisconsin newspaper group, the New York Times Co. (Worcester Telegram & Gazette), the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (McClatchy Corp.), Belo Corp. (Dallas Morning News), the Denver Post (MediaNews Corp.), Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, Comtex News Network Inc., China Online Inc., uclick.com (Andrews McMeel/Universal Press), and the E.W. Scripps Co. (Corpus Christi [Texas] Caller Times.

Clickshare's 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.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Everett Herald: Mark Briggs, 425-339-3433(briggs@heraldnet.com)

Clickshare:
Dirk Swart, 413-822-5793 (dirk@clickshare.com)
or Edward Bride, 413-442-7718 (Ed@edbride-pr.com)