America Online Announces New Content Partnership With Chic Simple, Global Style Authorities and Creators of the Best-Selling Series On Fashion, Design and Entertaining Advice.

DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 1999--

Innovative New Online Shopping Approach Offers Immediate,

Personal Solutions to Women's Modern-Day Wardrobe

and Life Style Questions

Chic Simple Catalogs to Debut July 26 Across AOL's Portfolio of New

Shopping Destinations: Shop@AOL, [e-mail], Shop@CompuServe,

Shop@Netscape and Shop@Digital City

America Online, Inc., the world's leading interactive services company, today announced that it has entered into a new content partnership with Chic Simple, global style authorities, creators of the best-selling series of lifestyle and fashion books from Knopf, a division of Random House, and authors of the monthly column in Time, Inc.'s In Style magazine, entitled, "Chic Simple Solutions."

Under the agreement, Chic Simple creators Kim Johnson Gross and Jeff Stone will take online shopping to the next level through new interactive programming and merchandising initiatives aimed at providing women personal solutions to their modern-day shopping and style questions.

Combining their innovative design and lifestyle philosophies with the high quality brand-name items offered by AOL merchants, Chic Simple will create a series of topical online "Catalogs," coined Chic Simple Wardrobes(TM), for women across AOL's portfolio of new consumer shopping destinations: Shop@AOL, [e-mail], Shop@CompuServe, Shop@Netscape and Shop@Digital City.

Designed exclusively for AOL's rapidly growing community of online and Web users, and applying the same streamlined and simplified design approach and attention to detail as the award-winning Chic Simple books, the new Chic Simple Wardrobes(TM) are designed to offer women immediate and personal solutions to their modern day wardrobe questions.

By providing women with the practical and useful information they need to interpret and develop their own personal style, Chic Simple Wardrobes will help to enrich women's online shopping experience and help them make better purchasing decisions.

Each season, Shop@AOL's Chic Simple Wardrobe will help online shoppers build the perfect wardrobe for modern day, real-life situations, such as a family event, a weekend away, a special occasion, or casual Friday at the office.

The lessons of comfort, quality and versatility introduced to users are similar to those in the Chic Simple books, with one exception -- shoppers can purchase individual elements, or entire style solutions, from AOL merchants with a simple "click" of their mouse.

Launching today, "Chic Simple Wardrobe: Summer" will enlighten users as to how to renew a basic summer wardrobe and add to it to create their own individual style. Users will also discover how to add flexibility to their wardrobe, what mixes and matches well, which accessories are important or optional, and will also help to answer questions on other wardrobe dilemmas.

Chic Simple cofounder Kim Johnson Gross said, "Our goal has always been to help people understand that what they own is a reflection of them, their needs, their personal style and their experiences. Bringing this same philosophy to AOL's community of users, our goal is to create innovative merchandising and content to help women not only make purchasing decisions, but also to help them to appreciate their possessions, admire them, use them, maintain them, and enjoy them."

Gross' partner Jeff Stone continued, "Fashion is for the masses, style is for the individual. Our approach to style is unique in that we recognize it as truly personal. It cannot be dictated; rather, it must be cultivated. By empowering each individual, and making their online shopping experience more personal, we look to bring an important service to AOL's loyal audience of women shoppers and to the diverse Chic Simple community."

Patrick Gates, AOL's Vice President of E-commerce, said: "We are thrilled to enter into this new agreement with Chic Simple. We believe this relationship is destined for success because we share the same consumer-centric, solutions-based shopping philosophy."

In a related release, the Company announced today the debut of its new Shop@AOL consumer online shopping destination, introducing a cutting-edge product design and state-of-the-art merchandising features designed to deliver a more appealing and more consumer-friendly online shopping experience across AOL's network of interactive brands.

In a relatively short period of time, the award-winning Chic Simple series has become a respected source for understanding and developing personal style, and continues to generate significant attention from respected members of the consumer media.

Hearst's Elle Decor magazine referred to the series as "the most innovative series of design and lifestyle books to come out of the US in recent years"; Conde Nast's Mademoiselle said, "(Chic Simple)...gives you real hope that order can be achieved out of closet chaos." And Time, Inc.'s Entertainment Weekly said Chic Simple is "simply irresistible, giving Martha Stewart a serious run for her money."

About America Online, Inc.

Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services.

America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 17 million members, and CompuServe, with approximately 2 million members; several leading Internet brands including ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM portals; the Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers; AOL MovieFone, the nation's largest movie listing guide and ticketing service; and Spinner Networks and NullSoft, Inc., leaders in Internet music.

Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the Company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy.