CNN.com Leads All News Sites in Election Day Coverage.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 2000

CNN.com Breaks Traffic Record

CNN.com led all news sites in unique users at home and at work on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 7, according to Media Metrix and Nielsen/NetRatings.

CNN.com internal estimates show that the CNN Web sites broke all traffic records with 100 million page impressions. Nielsen/NetRatings reports that the site also led all news sites in Gross Usage Minutes (GUM).

Media Metrix reports that CNN.com attracted 3.5 million unique users at home and at work. Nielsen/NetRatings recorded that 1.6 million unique users chose CNN.com throughout the day and evening from home. At-work usage totaled 2.4 million unique users. In addition, CNN.com's internal numbers showed a yield of 6.3 million unique users for the same 24-hour period, including international usage not measured by the domestic Media Metrix and Nielsen/NetRatings services. This is a 62 percent increase from the former in-house unique user record set on Thursday, Oct. 12, the day after a U.S. presidential debate and when Middle East tensions escalated and terrorists attacked a U.S. Navy destroyer docked in Yemen.

The site surpassed its total-day record of page impressions at 4:40 p.m. (ET). CNN.com served approximately 100 million page impressions for the day, a 149-percent increase from the previous record of 40.1 million page impressions set on Oct 12. The site peaked at midnight when it served more than 18 million page impressions per hour.

CNN.com recorded 28.6 million Gross Usage Minutes at home and 38.4 million at work, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. CNN.com GUM numbers were more than twice as high as its nearest competitor, MSNBC.com, both at home and at work.

Throughout the day, CNN.com's specially designed pages offered easy-to-access updated news and interactive elements, including:

      --  Breaking news bulletins.

      --  Up-to-the-minute election results and exit polls from the U.S.
        presidential and all other contests, including congressional
        and gubernatorial races.

      --  Streaming and on-demand video of election-day events, as well
        as an archive of all Election 2000 video highlights.

      --  Interactive maps, games and features.

      --  Links to transcripts from selected on-air interviews.

      --  Online chats with political pundits.

      --  The real-time online chat room, the Spin Room, with CNN
        Crossfire co-host Bill Press and John Fund, editorial page
        writer for the Wall Street Journal.

Throughout the night, CNN.com integrated coverage with CNN on-air offering a wide range of options for viewers and Internet users.

CNN Interactive is responsible for the award-winning news site CNN.com, as well as 13 other Web sites and the distribution of CNN news content via other platforms such as mobile phones. The CNN sites, which include nine international sites, are among the world's leading news and information destinations and are ranked the most trusted by Internet users worldwide. CNN.com ranks number one in Gross Usage Minutes among all online news and information sites. Gross Usage Minutes are an industry metric derived by multiplying unique users by time spent per user.