New Internet Association to serve local advertising & commerce marketplace is holding organizational meeting.

PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 20, 1997--Senior executives from some of the leading Internet companies serving the burgeoning local advertising and commerce market announced Thursday an organizational meeting on March 19 in St. Louis for a new, not-for-profit association, the Internet Local Advertising and Commerce Association (ILAC).

ILAC is being formed to accelerate the development of standards and business practices that will make Internet local advertising more valuable for advertisers and consumers.

The executives serving on the Organizing Committee for ILAC are:

James D'Arcangelo, Vice President, The Kelsey Group

Kris Hagerman, President & CEO, BigBook Inc.

Jeff Killeen, President & CEO, Pacific Bell Interactive Media

Pat Marshall, President New Media, GTE Directories

Victor "Chip" Perry, Vice President Corporate Development,

Times Mirror

Beth Singer, Director of Classified and Directory Advertising,

Digital City

David Tremain, Vice President, Berry Network

Lyle Wolf, Vice President Product Management, Reuben H. Donnelley

Consultants to the ILAC Organizing Committee are John F. Kelsey, President, The Kelsey Group, and Robert L. Smith Jr., former executive director of the Interactive Services Association for 14 years.

"The local Internet marketplace is attracting a diverse group of companies with common interests and creating a whole set of new business issues," said James D'Arcangelo of The Kelsey Group and a member of the ILAC Organizing Committee. He added, "No existing association is focusing on the full range of issues that are important to this diverse local Internet advertising and commerce community."

Companies serving the local Internet marketplace and which are being invited to attend the March 19th meeting include:

-- Yellow Page Publishers -- Advertising Sales Agents/CMRs -- Classified Providers -- Newspapers -- Internet Commerce Services -- Internet Directory Publishers -- Local Community Oriented Services -- Coupon & Direct Response

Marketers -- Ad Agencies -- Technology Suppliers -- Search Engines

The meeting in St. Louis is open to all interested parties and will be held in the Hyatt Regency at Union Station from 1:30 - 4 p.m. CST. At this meeting, attendees will discuss the purpose and mission of ILAC, the issues and programs it will tackle, and the structure for membership participation. Some of the issues that ILAC is likely to address and will be discussed at the March 19th meeting are:

-- Developing advertising standards to make it easy for

advertisers to make buys among multiple, local Internet

products;

-- Creating measurement and validation systems to provide

accurate information to advertisers;

-- Establishing a core of uniform advertising/directory/search

categories that are meaningful to users; and

-- Creating a network to allow advertisers to make local

purchases across multiple products.

To register for this organizational meeting, please contact Sheila Steinmuller at 609/921-7200. For additional information or to sign up on the Web, visit http://www.kelseygroup.com/ilac . There is no fee to attend.

CONTACT: The Kelsey Group

Sheila Steinmuller, 609/921-7200