ADVO Extends Denver Newspaper Agreement.

Business Editors

WINDSOR, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2001

ADVO, Inc. (NYSE: AD) announced today a new, five-year agreement with the Denver Newspaper Agency.

This agreement allows for a continuation of the joint selling and distribution agreement that ADVO has had with The Denver Post. In addition, the agreement will now include the Rocky Mountain News, the other Denver daily newspaper which recently combined operations with The Post as a result of the papers' Joint Operating Agreement. Based on the agreement, ADVO will distribute a direct mail package of advertising, including advertisements from each newspaper, to all non-subscribers in the Denver market. Each newspaper will, in turn, distribute a similar package weekly to their subscribers via the paper.

"We are very pleased about the extension of our relationship with the Denver Newspaper Agency," said Gary Mulloy, Chairman and CEO of ADVO. "The Agency's desire to expand this program is a powerful endorsement of the concept. As such, it further encourages us in our pursuit of other newspaper alliances."

ADVO is the nation's largest full-service targeted direct mail marketing services company with annual revenues of over $1 billion. The Company's core ShopWise branded shared mail program is distributed nationally to approximately 60 million households weekly. Approximately 30 million additional households can be reached, on a shared mail basis, through ADVO's National Network Extension (A.N.N.E.). Additionally, the Company's consumer web site, ShopWise.com, provides targeted Internet access to consumers. ADVO's subsidiary, MailCoups, Inc., produces Super Coups, a direct mail-based advertising solution for local neighborhood businesses in an envelope format. ADVO has 21 mail processing facilities and 60 sales offices nationwide. ADVO's corporate headquarters are located at One Univac Lane, Windsor, Connecticut 06095. The Company can be visited at its Web site at www.advo.com.

The Denver Newspaper Agency, publisher of The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, began formal operations on January 22, 2001, following approval by the federal government of a joint operating agreement designed to preserve the competing editorial voices of The Post and News. Business operations for the two newspapers will be managed by the Agency, which is 50 percent owned by MediaNewsGroup and E. W. Scripps Co.

This report contains certain forward looking statements regarding the Company's results of operations and financial position within the meaning of Sections 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward looking statements are based on current information and expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties which would cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those in the forward looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: changes in customer demand and pricing; the possibility of consolidation throughout the retail sector; the impact of economic conditions on retail advertising spending; postal and paper prices; possible governmental regulation or legislation affecting aspects of the Company's business; the efficiencies achieved with technology upgrades; the amount of shares the Company will repurchase in the future under its buyback program; fluctuations in interest rates related to the outstanding debt and other general economic factors.