60-Plus Indispensable BNA Publications Available via WWW on LEXIS-NEXIS Xchange.

DAYTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 16, 1998--LEXIS-NEXIS and The Bureau of National Affairs Inc. announced today that they have signed an agreement to provide access to more than 60 BNA(R) publications through the premier web-based product for legal professionals, LEXIS(R)-NEXIS(R) Xchange(TM).

"The BNA titles have been an extremely important part of the legal news offerings for years on the LEXIS(R)-NEXIS(R) services through propriety dial-up access methods," said Nicholas R. Emrick, vice president and general manager of LEXIS<< Online Publishing. "Subscribers to our popular LEXIS-NEXIS Xchange service now have a clear advantage by being able to search these materials through web access."

BNA, based in Washington, D.C., publishes a variety of titles covering a broad spectrum of practice areas, including intellectual property, environmental law, federal securities, labor and employment, tax and public contracts. Among the prestigious titles are U.S. Law Week, U.S. Patents Quarterly and the BNA Tax Management Portfolios. Its daily publications, including Daily Tax Report, Daily Labor Report and Daily Environment Report are indispensable to the legal professional.

Today's announcement is part of a continuing partnership to bring BNA's premier titles to the LEXIS-NEXIS Xchange service. In July, the two companies announced that BNA Mergers and Acquisitions Law Report, the leading weekly publication covering legal developments in the mergers and acquisitions field, was available as an electronic exclusive via LEXIS-NEXIS Xchange (www.lexis.com).

The addition of the BNA titles also is part of an ongoing effort to enhance LEXIS-NEXIS Xchange with time-sensitive, critical information, Emrick said. Coupled with the LEXIS(R)-NEXIS(R) Daily Opinion Service, an electronic advance sheet, the new BNA offering strengthens that initiative. The Daily Opinion Service is updated three-times daily and allows users to view a free cite list of recent opinions for all federal and state appellate and high courts nationwide.

Founded in 1929 and incorporated in its present form in 1947, BNA is the oldest privately held, wholly employee-owned company in the United States. BNA (www.bna.com) is a leading publisher of print and electronic news and information, reporting on developments in business, labor relations, law, health care, economics, taxation, environmental protection, health and safety and other public policy and regulatory issues.

LEXIS-NEXIS, headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, is celebrating 25 years as the world's leading provider of enhanced information services and management tools. The company's mission is to help legal, business and government professionals collect, manage and use information more productively.

LEXIS-NEXIS is a division of Reed Elsevier Inc., and a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group (www.reed-elsevier.com), one of the world's leading publishing and information businesses. Reed Elsevier has annual sales in excess of $5 billion and 27,000 employees. It is owned equally by Reed International P.L.C. (NYSE: RUK) and Elsevier NV (NYSE:ENL).

Information about LEXIS-NEXIS and Reed Elsevier may be found at the LEXIS-NEXIS Communication Center on the World Wide Web at www.lexis-nexis.com. A listing of additional news releases available via fax may be obtained by calling [phone] (LEXIS) or [phone] (NEXIS) and ordering document No. 0001.