PRIMEDIA Names Tom Rogers Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 1999--

Top NBC Executive Tapped to Bring New Media Focus to

Strong Portfolio of Print and Video Businesses

Tom Rogers, President of NBC Cable and Executive Vice President, NBC, has been appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PRIMEDIA, Inc. (NYSE:PRM), a diversified media and information company, the Company's Board of Directors announced today.

This appointment signifies a much deeper new media focus for PRIMEDIA, building upon its already existing internet operations and its strong portfolio of print and video brands.

Mr. Rogers is credited with having been the driving force over the last decade in the reshaping of General Electric's NBC from a traditional broadcast company to a highly diversified and integrated mass media company with major interests in many cable program channels, international television services, as well as multiple internet, digital and interactive businesses. Among his many accomplishments, Rogers founded CNBC, the nation's leading business news channel; established the NBC/Microsoft cable channel and internet joint venture, MSNBC; established a wide number of internet businesses culminating in the creation of NBCi, soon to trade as a public entity, of which he was slated to become Vice Chairman; and most recently, he put together NBC's new relationship with the Paxson TV network and station group.

Rogers has also been NBC's chief strategist, and his expertise was recently recognized by the Industry Standard magazine where he was named as one of the "Net 21" - the twenty-one most influential people of the internet economy. Among the more than two dozen internet businesses that Rogers has steered NBC into ownership positions with are C-NET, iVillage and Net2Phone.

"Tom is the ideal person to lead PRIMEDIA into the future," said Henry R. Kravis, a director of the Company and a founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), PRIMEDIA's largest shareholder. "His accomplishments as a highly respected leader and strategic thinker in the media business, his strong background in creating new media businesses from traditional media assets, his success in creating new information and news franchises, both domestically and internationally, and his enthusiasm for the potential inherent in PRIMEDIA's great assets will create the foundation for the next chapter in PRIMEDIA's growth."

PRIMEDIA, which had 1998 sales from continuing operations of $1.5 billion and EBITDA of $330 million, owns over two hundred print and video media businesses including consumer magazines such as New York, Chicago, Seventeen, Modern Bride, Soap Opera Digest, Automobile and American Baby. Video businesses include Channel One, the television news channel provided to 12,000 high schools serving 8 million students throughout the country. PRIMEDIA's trade publications range from such telecommunications, media, and marketing titles as Telephony, Cable World, American Demographics and Folio, to a wide array of other business-to-business titles covering the transportation, real estate, industrial and agricultural sectors. The company also owns the largest collection of consumer enthusiast publications including Sail, Power and Motoryacht, Surfing, Fly Fisherman, Horticulture and Military History.

PRIMEDIA, which has over 7,000 employees, publishes the largest number of magazine ad pages of any media company in the country, and has a total circulation across all its businesses of 70.3 million. Eighty four percent of the company's products are ranked #1 or #2 in their respective markets.

PRIMEDIA has begun an aggressive effort to expand into internet and E-commerce-related businesses in both the consumer and business sectors. The Company intends to leverage its very significant trade information businesses into a substantial business-to-business internet-based effort. The company presently operates over 200 internet sites tied to its many publications and other informational businesses, including Seventeen.com and Channel One.com, both focused on the exploding web market aimed at teenage users. The Company's internet businesses also include such properties as Media Central.com, an aggregator of news and information relevant to the media industry, and apartmentguide.com, a consumer service providing apartment rental listings around the country serviced by PRIMEDIA's HPC Publishing, the largest publisher of free apartment guides in the country distributed in 70 regional markets. The company currently has 55 million average monthly page views across all its sites, and over 5.5 million sessions.

"PRIMEDIA's existing media properties are a consistently performing, powerful collection of assets that address a substantial number of highly targeted consumer interests and business needs, that are very well suited for creating significant internet value and accelerated growth," Rogers said. "I am very excited about being able to apply my background as a GE-trained executive to the opportunity at PRIMEDIA to do what I do best - update a company's strategic focus by creating new media businesses out of a traditional media base. PRIMEDIA's existing team of managers has gotten this process off to a good start, and I look forward to being a catalyst that helps propel PRIMEDIA to the head of the pack in the magazine industry and its other business sectors as a new media innovator."

Rogers continued, "I was also very impressed by KKR's enthusiasm for the Company making the level of investments necessary to build further a major internet presence."

Said Kravis, "As enthusiastic supporters of the Company, we are confident that Tom will be most effective in bringing a whole new focus to PRIMEDIA, and in working with us to create greater value for its shareholders."

PRIMEDIA also holds positions in a number of internet ventures, including CarsDirect.com, Internet Gift Registries, MyPoint.com, Utility.com and Craftshop.com.

Mr. Rogers, 45 years old, joined NBC in 1987, and was named President of NBC Cable in 1988. In 1992, he was additionally named Executive Vice President of NBC. In 1996, he was also named the company's Chief Strategist. From 1981 to 1986, he was Senior Counsel to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications, where, among other things, he was instrumental in writing the Cable Act of 1984, which helped reshape the cable industry. Prior to that, he was an attorney with a Wall Street law firm. A graduate of Columbia Law School and Wesleyan University, he and his wife Sylvia have three children.