Maxell Selects JPR Communications to Drive Aggressive Data Media Public Relations Strategies and Campaign.

Business Editors

FAIR LAWN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 4, 2002

Maxell Corporation of America, a division of Hitachi Maxell, Ltd., announced today it has selected storage industry specialist JPR Communications as its public relations counsel for the Maxell data storage division. JPR's charter is to drive Maxell's data storage branding efforts and to more aggressively and effectively communicate the company's market strengths to consumers and business customers, as well as its broad network of reseller partners.

A leading provider of premium recordable media worldwide, Maxell's continuing growth and changes in the data storage industry have necessitated an integrated, aggressive approach to product and corporate strategy and branding.

"JPR's extensive expertise and focus on data storage technology, along with its proven track record, made them the ideal choice for co-developing and supporting the Maxell public relations campaign," said Peter Brinkman, vice president of marketing. "We look forward to teaming with JPR to communicate Maxell's unique vision and leadership, and to expanding our reach even further."

Maxell has a broad product portfolio, impressive OEM partnerships and a highly developed reseller channel. By applying a unified strategy that addresses these core strengths as a single opportunity for continued leadership, Maxell will effectively intensify its marketing and communications and secure its brand as the premium media supplier worldwide.

According to Judy Smith, president of JPR Communications, "Maxell has the highest level of customer and partner trust, who recognize the quality of its products and quality of service. Our mission is to extend the Maxell brand to a broader audience and to solidify its well-known and well-earned reputation of technology leadership. And, while other media suppliers boast a broad offering of optical and tape media, Maxell has consistently been the first out the door with new media formats as hardware technologies have evolved."

Maxell is a market leader in LTO (Linear Tape Open) and DLT tape technologies that satisfy the high capacity and performance needs of medium-sized to large enterprises. Due to the rapid evolution of storage technologies, Maxell invests heavily in R&D. Maxell's OEM partnerships allow the company to work closely with drive manufacturers from the design stage through development and distribution.

Maxell set the standard for premium audio media, and now does the same for DVD as the industry's leading supplier of recordable DVD media for consumer and professional applications. The company offers the industry's broadest line of recordable DVD media featuring DVD-R general and authoring media. Maxell also supplies DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R and DVD Camcorder formats.

Best remembered for its 1980s advertising campaign known as "The Blowaway Guy," in which a music lover is blown away by the quality of Maxell audio, today Maxell is one of the world's leading producers of optical and tape data storage media. Maxell also continues to produce and lead the market in sales of both consumer and professional audio and video tape, CD-R music discs, camcorder tape and discs, as well as dry batteries, microcells, and a variety of care and maintenance accessories.

An engineering and marketing leader in recordable media products since 1969, Maxell Corporation of America is a full-line manufacturer of digital and analog media products. Maxell's data storage group provides one of the industry's broadest lines of premium digital recording media, from floppy diskettes to optical discs, including 3.5" floppy, CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-RAM, 14X MO, SuperDisk(TM), DLT, SDLT, LTO, DDS and AIT. All Maxell data storage products are backed by a limited lifetime warranty, money-back satisfaction guarantee and toll-free technical support. Additional information on Maxell can be found on the company's web site: http://www.maxell-data.com.

About JPR Communications

Encino, Calif.-based public relations agency JPR Communications is dedicated completely to the data storage market. JPR's strategic and tactical talent, and understanding of the storage market, allows the company to partner with startups through multi-billion dollar companies, and its client roster of storage suppliers stay at the forefront of the industry. Additional information on JPR Communications can be found on the company's web site at: www.jprcom.com

AIT is a trademark of Sony Electronic Corp. DLTtape and SuperDLTtape are trademarks of Quantum Corp. SuperDisk is a trademark of Imation Corp.