ADVISORY/Alternative Newsweekly Association Annual Convention.

News Editors/Assignment Desks

ADVISORY...for Thursday - Sunday (June 5-8)

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 28, 2003

Richard Florida, Jeffrey Gitomer, Sandy Pearlman and Neal Pollack headline the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies annual convention June 5-8, 2003 at the Pittsburgh Hilton Hotel.

AAN plans to issue the following news releases during the annual convention, which will be available on site in Pittsburgh and online at aan.org, as well as distributed by Business Wire:

June 6    Alternative Newsweekly Award winners
June 9    Admission of new members

Other news releases may be made available if warranted.

Scheduled events include:

June 5
         6-8 p.m.       Opening reception at Dowe's
         8-11 p.m.      Private tour of the Andy Warhol Museum

June 6
         1-3 p.m.       Alternative Newsweekly Awards Luncheon

                        Winners announced in 17 writing and
                        graphic/design categories, presented by
                        satirist Neal Pollack. In addition to the
                        above, he is an alumnus of Northwestern
                        University's Medill School of Journalism, as
                        well as the Chicago Reader and Philadelphia
                        Weekly. He writes for McSweeney's and produces
                        a daily Internet column called "Maelstrom" on
                        his own site, nealpollack.com. In 2000,
                        Pollack published his first book, "The Neal
                        Pollack Anthology of American Literature,"
                        with McSweeney's Books. Pollack's second book,
                        "Beneath The Axis Of Evil: One Man's Journey
                        Into The Horrors Of War," a collection of his
                        political satire, was published in January.

         10 a.m.-1 p.m. The Art and Science of Asking Questions and
                        Getting the Right Answers

                        Jeffrey Gitomer

                        Sales guru Gitomer, the author of "The Sales
                        Bible," now in its 18th printing, and
                        "Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer
                        Loyalty is Priceless" takes classified
                        advertising reps through ways to close the
                        deal by asking the questions that will
                        generate a sale every time. Gitomer's books
                        have sold more than 350,000 copies worldwide.

         3-4:15 p.m.    The Rise of the Creative Class

                        Richard Florida

                        Florida, author of the best-selling book, "The
                        Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's
                        Transforming Work, Leisure Community and
                        Everyday Life." Richard Florida will show how
                        the choices the creative class makes will
                        determine how the workplace is organized, what
                        companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and
                        even which cities will thrive or wither.

         7 p.m.         Dinner Cruise on the Three Rivers

Saturday,
 June 7
         10-11:15 a.m.  The Future of the Music Business

                        Sandy Pearlman

                        Pearlman is an authority on the convergence of
                        the film, video and music cultures with the
                        new culture of Web technology. He was
                        president and owner of the seminal American
                        alternative label, 415 Records, one of the
                        founders of rock criticism, and invented the
                        term "Heavy Metal" during his sojourn at
                        Crawdaddy magazine. He will lead a discussion
                        on how advances in digital technology as well
                        as changes in the legal and regulatory
                        landscape have changed how are listeners going
                        to consume live and prerecorded music in the
                        future, and what kinds of business models are
                        likely to emerge to support these new
                        listening habits.

         11:45 a.m. -
                1 p.m.  Music Retail in the Digital Age

                        Panel discussion on the impact of digital
                        distribution and P2P networks on the
                        traditional music retailer.
                        Moderator: Pam Horovitz, National Association
                        of Recording Merchandisers. Panelists: Len
                        Cosimano, Borders, Inc., Mike Dreese, Newbury
                        Comics, Tom Quirk, listen.com.

         7 p.m.-
               midnight Cocktail Reception & Hothouse '03

                        The closing party is a unique partnership
                        between host Pittsburgh City Paper and The
                        Sprout Fund, a community nonprofit that
                        supports innovative young people through small
                        grants for community projects. The Sprout
                        Fund's community event, Hothouse '03,
                        showcases exhibitions, performance art, music,
                        food and drink in a renovated school building
                        located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood.

Sunday,
 June 8
         8 a.m. - noon  Annual Membership Meeting

                        Agenda includes admission of new members and
                        election of board members.

Complete program information, speaker biographies and timelines are available at: http://aan.org/gbase/Aan/Convention.

Working press interested in covering the AAN Convention may register onsite at the Pittsburgh Hilton, Ballroom Foyer registration desk beginning Thursday, June 5 at noon until 7:30 p.m. and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Please be prepared to show media identification.

2003 AAN Convention sponsors include DesertNet, the Jordan Edmiston Group, Inc., the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pennsylvania Brewing Co., and the Guitar Center.

AAN is a not-for-profit organization representing the alternative newsweekly industry, which includes publications such as The Village Voice, Chicago Reader and San Francisco Bay Guardian. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., AAN represents 116 newsweeklies in the United States and Canada with combined total weekly circulation of more than 7.6 million and a reach of more than 19 million readers.

Information about AAN and its member papers can be found at www.aan.org.