Cook's Illustrated Uses Clearway FireSite to Handle Heavy Holiday Web Traffic and Prep for New TV Show.

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 2000

Clearway's Next-Generation CDN Provides Scalability and Performance

Needed to Handle Increased Traffic from "America's Test Kitchen,"

Expected to Reach Over Six Million Viewers

Clearway Technologies, LLC, the only provider of Web performance solutions for businesses of all sizes, announced today that Cook's Illustrated, a leading cooking Web site and magazine, has standardized on Clearway's next-generation content delivery service (CDN), FireSite(TM), to enhance its ability to handle surges in Web site traffic and provide consistent first class Web performance to its customers.

Clearway FireSite, a turnkey content delivery network, was chosen to prepare the Cook's Illustrated Web site for the heavy traffic expected to derive from the new Cook's Illustrated TV show, "America's Test Kitchen," which launches in January 2001. In addition, FireSite helped scale the traffic on the Cook's Illustrated Web site to more than twice its average volume for the Thanksgiving holiday. Now the site is prepared for the prime time Christmas holiday traffic, which is expected to be up 40% from last year due to the substantial number of readers going to the site to buy Cook's Illustrated books and subscriptions for gifts, and to retrieve holiday recipes.

"Clearway FireSite is critical to the success of Cook's Illustrated's presence, especially with the launch of our new television show and the heavy traffic we expect," said James McCormack, vice president production, operations and technology, Cook's Illustrated. "When traffic increases to our site, Clearway FireSite helps maintain first class performance and provides a top-notch experience for our customers. Customers stay on the site longer, and tend to register for paid subscriptions or buy our books. The more information customers see, the more likely they are to buy--as a result, FireSite is really helping to drive revenue for us."

In early January Cook's Illustrated will be launching its new TV Show, "America's Test Kitchen," on public television, with the first episode kicking off on January 6, 2001. Over 150 TV stations have already agreed to pick up the show. With so many stations signed on, "America's Test Kitchen" is estimated to have over six million potential viewers. Cook's Illustrated Web site traffic is expected to rise substantially, so site performance was a key concern when planning the rollout of the show.

Holiday traffic reaches new highs

This year the online holiday shopping industry is busier than ever, and Cook's Illustrated is no exception. The first week in December, Cook's Illustrated reached a new record for online book sales, selling more books in one week than a normal month's worth of sales. This year online book sales for the holiday period are estimated to grow as much as 40% higher than last year's holiday period. The online cooking industry is extremely competitive, so quality and performance on the Web is extremely important.

To ensure good experiences for site visitors, Clearway FireSite serves Cook's Illustrated's high-bandwidth graphics and multimedia files to users from Clearway's high-performance network of content servers. The process is enabled by FireSite's breakthrough software agent that resides on the Web server, allowing FireSite to gather direct information and take direct action. FireSite intelligently and automatically pushes rich site content to Clearway's network, observes site traffic--hit by hit--in real time, and automatically rewrites tags on Web pages to direct each browser to receive content from the best possible Clearway content server.

Cook's Illustrated installed FireSite on the advice of Blue Sun Multimedia, a leading Internet professional services firm, and the creator of the Cook's Illustrated Web site. Blue Sun, a Clearway Partner, recommended FireSite to increase site speed and scalability, especially in anticipation of holiday surge crowds, the launch of Cook's Illustrated's new Web site and TV series, "America's Test Kitchen," and TV appearances by Cook's Illustrated editorial staff.

"FireSite is a turnkey solution that results in bottom line benefits for businesses like Cook's Illustrated, who depend on the performance of their Web site," said Alexander Globus, CEO and Chairman of Clearway. "FireSite has not only increased page download speed, but also has removed Cook's Illustrated's worries over scalability and performance, allowing them to spend their time where it is most valuable - on their customers."

About Cook's Illustrated

One of the Web's most trusted sources for cooking information, cooksillustrated.com offers almost a half-million paying subscribers a wide range of cooking features, from recipes and techniques developed in the legendary Cook's Test Kitchens, to unbiased kitchen equipment reviews, food tasting results, and a Q&A forum with the editors. Cooksillustrated.com is a central component of the Cook's Illustrated franchise and a key contributor to the $13 million dollar cooking company. In January Cook's Illustrated will roll out a new TV show, "America's Test Kitchen," hosted by the actual editorial staff of Cook's Illustrated magazine. Expected to reach over 6 million viewers, the show will focus on one aspect of a meal per episode, and will teach viewers how to make that part of the meal the best.

About Clearway

A pre-IPO firm headquartered in Boston, Clearway delivers technologies and services that liberate Internet-dependent businesses from the technical burdens of Web performance. The Company was founded in 1996, when it applied for the patent on the core technology that enables all of today's principal methods of content delivery. The patent was granted in 1999.

A privately owned company, Clearway is backed by significant funding from prestigious organizations, including YankeeTek, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Comcast Interactive Capital. For more information, please visit the Clearway Web site at http://www.clearway.com.

FireSite is a trademark of Clearway Technologies, LLC in the United States and other countries. All other names are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.