Gather.com Launches Website for 30 Million Public Radio Listeners to Interact and Share Diverse Perspectives; Earnings-based Model to Supplant One-sided Blogging.

BOSTON -- Gather(TM), the unique online site where public radio listeners and other informed, engaged people share diverse perspectives, announced today its public beta launch at www.gather.com(TM). Gather is the first online outlet to encourage global perspectives to emerge across a wide variety of topics and be heard above today's media noise. In contrast to other media and single-sourced individual blogs, which are hard to find and difficult to compare across a single topic, Gather provides a high-visibility environment where writers, bloggers and other individual contributors can come together to provide a 360-degree global view into shared areas of interest - and get paid for it.

"Despite what the evening news might have you believe, there aren't just two sides to every story. There are two hundred - or two thousand, depending on the story," said Tom Gerace, Gather's co-founder and CEO. "The media are often limited by time and the financial resources they have to gather the facts. Our broad-source network of Gather members is free to set their own agendas and delve deeply into their own interests with informed and interesting people like them."

Today, public radio listeners enjoy diverse radio programming that spans local and national news and political commentary, business and economics, food and wine, spirituality, music and comedy. Listeners to a single program share a common passion, yet have varying perspectives on a single subject. The one-way radio medium fails, however, to capture this collective knowledge and does not allow people to interact together in a broader forum.

"The 30 million people listening to public radio every day have a depth of knowledge and perspective to share. They often have more in common with the people hearing the programs they love than they do with their neighbors or family," said Gather Chairman Bill Kling, who is also Chairman and CEO of the American Public Media Group, the nation's second largest public radio organization. "Gather allows this audience to dynamically interact and form friendships with people who add value to their passions through shared experiences and perspectives. That may lead to conversations or to adventures with similarly interesting people."

"Gather is creating a unique place online for me to interact with smart, engaged people. It's a place where I can be rewarded for contributing my perspective through thought, art, or commentary," said Verie Sandborg of Deerfield, Illinois, a Gather member and frequent contributor.

Gather's earnings-based model creates an environment that allows perspectives to emerge and rewards those perspectives based on the quality and popularity of an individual's contributions. Both contributors and consumers are rewarded for their participation with Gather Points(TM) that may be redeemed for products or cash through Gather's marketing partners.

Participation in Gather is free to members. Like other media companies, Gather earns revenue from advertising. Contributors and consumers share in this revenue based on the quality and popularity of the content they contribute and consume, and on how actively they use the site, search on Gather and on the web and invite others to use Gather.

"It's refreshing to be able to have a single site for diverse perspectives, instead of one-sided opinions," said Andrew Churchill from Washburn, Maine, a Gather member and consumer. "The range of topics touches all aspects of life, so I can immediately get an insightful, well-rounded perspective on virtually anything."

Gather Co-founder and CEO Tom Gerace was the highly successful twenty-something co-founder of Be Free, Inc., a publicly traded, on-line marketing services company that pioneered the category of affiliate marketing. Gather's Chairman and Co-founder, Bill Kling, is president and CEO of American Public Media Group (APMG), a strategic investor in Gather. APMG is the nonprofit parent organization of the national American Public Media and the regional Southern California Public Radio and Minnesota Public Radio.

About Gather

Gather (www.gather.com) is an online site where knowledgeable, engaged people share diverse perspectives. Gather members are rewarded for their participation with "Gather Points" or cash for most frequent contributors. Gather is led by an all-star team of industry veterans with deep experience in building highly successful, Internet-based companies and creating relevant content. Gather is a privately-held, privately-funded company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.gather.com or call 617.720.4000, ext. 1010.

About APMG

APMG is a tax-exempt, non-profit parent support organization that provides administrative, financial, and human resources services to its supported organizations - American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio and The Fitzgerald Theater Company - and provides financial and human resources services to its wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary, Greenspring Company. APMG operates the Public Radio MusicSource, a fundraising project for public radio stations; the A Prairie Home Companion Catalog, and The Lake Wobegon USA Store under license from MPR. APMG is the controlling shareholder of Gather Inc., a for-profit company that will provide community and commerce services to the public radio audience. Gather also has a content license agreement with MPR.

Gather, Gather.com, and Gather Points are trademark of Gather, Inc.