B2BWorks Secures $2.3 Million in First-Round Funding from 3 Major Media-Industry Investors.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 1999--

PRIMEDIA's IndustryClick, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, and IDG Ventures to Provide Growth Capital and Digital Content, Community, and E-Commerce

Expertise To Help B2BWorks Site Affiliates Become Powerhouse Web

Players

B2BWorks, www.b2bworks.com, the nation's first and largest online business-to-business advertising network, has received $2.3 million in first-round financing from a blue-chip consortium of three strategic media-industry investors: PRIMEDIA's (NYSE: PRM) IndustryClick, R.R. Donnelley & Sons (NYSE: DNY) and IDG Ventures.

Besides providing growth capital and business advice to B2BWorks, the three investor groups will provide B2BWorks' growing number of site affiliates with access to Web tools, services, resources and expertise that will enable them to become powerhouse e-commerce players and distinct Web communities better able to compete for marketing dollars in the new Internet economy.

B2BWorks differs from other online advertising networks in that it uses an affiliate model to connect business-to-business marketers with the most visited, most popular business-content sites owned by leading trade magazine publishers and associations. B2BWorks currently delivers 50 million page views and more than 10 million business executives monthly through its network of 170 site affiliates serving 75 different vertical industry segments. By year-end, the network will grow to more than 200 affiliate sites.

"B2BWorks mission is to provide innovative, practical and top-quality advertising access to business-to-business marketers that will allow them to achieve efficiency, accountability and high-performance in their efforts to reach business audiences on the Web," says Bill Furlong, B2BWorks president and CEO. "Armed with our `best of brand' site affiliates, a distinct technology edge and by offering critical reporting and media optimization benchmarks for advertisers, B2BWorks is the new standard bearer for B2B online media."

Many of America's largest and best-known business publishers and business-information providers participate in the B2BWorks network as site affiliates. The list includes PRIMEDIA's Intertec, Adams Business Media, Advanstar, American Digital Media, American Lawyer Media, McGraw-Hill, the National Association of Realtors, Penton Media, and Penwell.

"The business-to-business market on the Internet is exploding," says Kimberly Williams, vice president of R.R. Donnelley Online Services. "With sales of b-to-b products and services expected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2003, business marketers have unprecedented opportunities utilizing B2BWorks to grow their brands and increase revenues."

Launched in May 1999, B2BWorks currently has 15 full-time employees and has booked more than $500,000 in network ad sales from such diverse business-to-business marketers as Motorola, Tradeout.com, Cintas, seeitfirst.com, and E-Stamp. Privately held, the company is on track to significantly exceed its goal of $1.5 million in network advertising sales by the end of 1999.

In the coming weeks, B2BWorks will announce two developments: a sales-lead management tool and an "Industry Front" program to help business marketers effortlessly build industry-specific microsites on B2BWorks affiliate sites. B2BWorks also is negotiating a partnership deal with New York-based Screaming Media to sell business content to all member sites. Additionally, B2BWorks soon will be selling site-affiliate email databases.

"With a number of strategic agreements in place and established relationships, B2BWorks is poised to own the online b-to-b advertising market," says Kimberly Davis, general partner at IDG Ventures. "We are excited about the opportunities that B2BWorks represents. This company will revolutionize the way companies will market to the vertical community."

"B2BWorks is the first business-to-business only advertising network on the Web," said Charles G. McCurdy, president of PRIMEDIA. "Our partnership is consistent with our own leadership in the b-to-b space and we are enthusiastic about their business model."

Furlong conceived and founded B2BWorks after nine years as managing director of Ad Age's Business Marketing, where he helped launch Ad Age's Net Marketing. Co-founder Bill Giacalone, B2BWorks senior VP/site relations, was VP/marketing for the American Business Press and a Poppe Tyson executive for more than a decade. Linda Van Clief, VP/national sales manager of B2BWorks, leads a rapidly growing sales team with offices in Chicago, Boston, New York and San Francisco. She joined B2BWorks from CMP Media, where she was a senior sales executive and account director for the business technology group.

To support its growth, B2BWorks has signed on several key strategic partners, including AdForce, the gold standard in end-to-end online advertising management; ABC Interactive, which provides audits of every media buy, and BPA Interactive, which conducts affiliate-site audits. R.R. Donnelley Online Services will offer Web services to B2BWorks' publishing clients via ePublish, a turnkey Web solution focused on content, community and commerce that is designed specifically to help magazines extend their brand to the Web. The firm's communications partner is Slack Barshinger & Partners, a Chicago-based integrated b-to-b marketing communications agency and investor in the company.

B2BWorks also has created a blue-chip Media Advisory Panel, whose members include Tyler Schaeffer, senior VP/media director, FCB, New York; John Keck, senior VP/interactive media director, FCB Direct, San Francisco; Sarah Fay, exec. VP/managing director, Carat Freeman, Boston; Paul Marobella, chief relationship officer, Greco Ethridge Group, Boston; Bill Hebel, Ford Motor Media, Chicago; Andreas Panayi, president, BrandDialogue, New York; Mark Stephens, media director, Lot 21, San Francisco; and Richard Costello, manager, corporate marketing communications, General Electric Co., Fairfield, Connecticut. In addition, Fergus O'Daly, CEO of Fergus O'Daly & Associates, a Doubleclick co-founder and former Poppe Tyson executive, is a B2BWorks board member.

Additional information about B2BWorks can be found at www.b2bworks.net or by contacting B2BWorks at 888-805-1595.

Investor Information:

PRIMEDIA's IndustryClick , (NYSE: PRM, www.primediainc.com) is the business-to-business Internet unit of PRIMEDIA Inc., and is focused on creating vertical on-line communities that expand upon the role of PRIMEDIA's Intertec's more than 100 technical and trade magazines in highly targeted niche markets. PRIMEDIA is a targeted media company, headquartered in New York, with 1998 sales of $1.5 billion.

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, (NYSE: DNY, www.rrdonnelley.com) is a leading North American commercial printer and information management company. From content management through logistics and distribution, the company offers the broadest range of integrated services to publishers of catalogs, magazines, books, directories and retail inserts. R.R. Donnelley Online Services is a leading provider of e-commerce and Web development services to these publishers, including consulting, site design, development and hosting, content production and marketing. R.R. Donnelley & Sons is headquartered in Chicago.

IDG Ventures, www.idgventures.com, manages a $160-million early-stage private venture capital fund founded in 1996 by International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading producer of newspapers, magazines, books, conferences and research on computers and information technology. IDG Ventures has invested in over 18 privately held, start-up companies in information technology and Internet markets. The partners at IDG Ventures work closely with entrepreneurs to help them grow innovative companies on a global basis. IDG Ventures is headquartered in San Francisco.

Media Contacts:

B2BWorks: Stacey Reineking, director of public relations, Slack Barshinger & Partners, Chicago, 312-923-7630, [e-mail]

PRIMEDIA's IndustryClick: Warren Bimblick, VP/investor relations, New York, 212-745-0615, [e-mail]

R.R. Donnelley & Sons: Stephanie Jarrard, director of marketing, Downers Grove, IL, 630-322-6430, [e-mail]

IDG Ventures: Kim Davis, partner, San Francisco, 415-439-4420, [e-mail]