Delahaye Medialink Analysis of News Coverage Indicates Microsoft Has Best Reputation.

Business Editors

NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 28, 2003

With its legal obstacles largely behind it and buoyed by the successful product introduction of Xbox, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) has the best reputation among the largest American companies according to the results of the second annual Media Reputation Index released today.

Media Reputation Index, the annual assessment of how news coverage affects corporate reputation, is conducted by Delahaye, the communications research division of Medialink Worldwide Incorporated (Nasdaq: MDLK), a global leader in providing news and media services to professional communicators, and The Reputation Institute, a New York-based research group.

The 2002 results, based on an analysis of more than 350,000 news items, also found that a company can overcome past difficulties to achieve excellence. Ford Motor Company demonstrated the most positive shift having climbed 47 spots to number 33, as compared to last year's ranking.

"Reputation is not static; it changes as individual opinions change," stated Mark Weiner, Delahaye's chief executive officer. "We believe there are two key drivers of change: direct experience and indirect experience. Employees, customers and investors all have direct experience with a company and each experience either enhances or tarnishes their perception of that company. Since direct experience with a specific company is limited or non-existent, most perceptions are formed based on indirect experience - the most common of which is exposure to media coverage."

To determine which companies are most highly respected in the nation's news pages and airwaves, Delahaye conducted an analysis of print and broadcast news appearing from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2002. Delahaye classified media content about companies into the six categories of the Reputation Quotient developed by the Reputation Institute with Harris Interactive: products and services, emotional appeal, financial performance, social responsibility, vision and leadership, and workplace environment.

"It's important to monitor how companies are featured in the media because any change in a company's media coverage can influence how people perceive the company, thereby affecting its reputation," offered Reputation Institute founder Dr. Charles Fombrun. "In turn, a change in reputation is likely to affect how likely investors are to want to invest in the company's shares, which in turn changes a company's market value. Reputation has been repeatedly linked to multiple measures of value including better access to capital, higher market-to-book ratios, premium pricing, and attracting and retaining the best employees."

Several companies demonstrated the durability of their good media reputations despite a turbulent news year. Joining Microsoft among the top ten for the second consecutive year are Wal-Mart, Walt Disney, General Motors, IBM, Intel and General Electric.

Technology was the strongest of all sectors in 2002, with Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Dell claiming five of the top ten spots. Energy companies tended towards the bottom of the rankings with Enron, Dynegy, PG&E, Mirant, El Paso and Duke occupying six of the bottom ten places.

The 2002 Media Reputation Index is available through Norwalk, Conn.-based Delahaye Medialink (www.delahaye.com). For a base subscription fee of $5,000, subscribers have complete on-line access to organize and mine the data of all companies. For more information about the Reputation Institute visit their website http://www.reputationinstitute.com.

Methodology of 2002 Media Reputation Index

Delahaye begins by gathering news from the 75 of America's most prominent national news sources. From The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to Fortune, ABC World News Tonight and Bloomberg, Delahaye captures all of the country's most influential business media. The 2002 MRI analyzed over 350,000 different print and broadcast news items to measure reputational attributes of the Top 85 U.S. companies.

Each company is scored based on how many positive and negative reputation --driving attributes are found within each story. These attributes are classified into the six dimensions of the Harris-Fombrun Reputation Quotient: emotional appeal, products and services, vision and leadership, workplace environment, social responsibility and financial performance.

News stories are then scored based on Delahaye's Weighted Impact and Net Effect scores. These metrics give each clip a value based on its placement, prominence, extent of mention, use of visuals and most importantly, the article's tone. Multiplying these scores by a newspaper's circulation or a broadcast's audience creates Net Effect, a figure that indicates the number of people who have been positively or negatively exposed to each clip.

About Medialink:

Medialink (www.medialink.com) is a global leader in providing comprehensive and compelling multimedia communication solutions and services for more than 3,000 corporations and other organizations seeking to communicate news to their audiences through television, radio, print and the Internet. The company provides production and satellite distribution of video and audio news, multimedia webcasting services, press release newswire distribution, photography production and digital distribution, and strategic corporate communications consulting. Medialink also provides media monitoring and analysis and public relations research to help clients determine return on investment from their communications efforts. Based in New York, Medialink has 12 offices worldwide including an international hub in London.

For additional investor and financial information, please visit the recently launched Investor Relations section of the Company's Web site (www.medialink.com).

About Delahaye Medialink:

Since 1964, the people behind Delahaye Medialink (www.delahayemedialink.com) have been combining research technique, technology and insight to help companies understand and improve their reputations, plan and evaluate their communications programs and sharpen their competitive edge worldwide. Whether communicating internally or externally, via broadcast, online or print media, Delahaye Medialink provides research to accurately assess communications performance and the advice to execute successful communications programs. Delahaye Medialink, with offices in Norwalk, CT, Portsmouth NH, and London, England, is a division of Medialink Worldwide Incorporated.

About The Reputation Institute:

The Reputation Institute (www.reputationinstitute.com) is a private research organization devoted to building thought leadership about corporate reputations, their management, measurement and valuation. It brings together a global network of academics and practitioners interested in advancing knowledge about corporate reputations and improving the practice of reputation management.

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