Prodigy names Josh Grotstein senior vice president, Content, overseeing all content and creative development and Lisa Simpson vice president, Strategic Business Alliances.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 1995--Josh Grotstein has been named Senior Vice President, Content, and Lisa Simpson has been named Vice President, Strategic Business Alliances, Prodigy Services Company, announced Ed Bennett, President and CEO.

Mr. Grotstein joins Prodigy from NBC OnLine Ventures, where he has served as Vice President and General Manager, responsible for the management, strategic development and oversight of all of NBC's online products including NBC Supernet and NBC HTTV. Ms. Simpson joins Prodigy from NBC News where she served as Director, Business Development, responsible for multimedia, interactive, and online business affairs.

In this new role, Mr. Grotstein will oversee all content, including creation and development of all original content, as well as strategic alliances, acquisitions, licensing as well as general oversight of existing content and programming for the service. This includes all content areas including music, sports, news, entertainment, kids, games, finance, computing and communities.

In her new role, Ms. Simpson will develop and oversee the deal structure and strategic alliances for Prodigy as well as oversee the strategy and development of core critical content areas. She will also oversee the company's West coast content and marketing efforts.

"The appointments of Josh and Lisa to these top posts underscores our commitment to providing the best content anywhere in the online business and on the Web...period," said Ed Bennett, Prodigy's President and CEO. "Josh and Lisa have earned a reputation in this young industry as leading executives with keen strategic sense, excellent management skills and a vision of where this business is headed in the next decade."

As Vice President and General Manager of NBC OnLine Ventures, Mr. Grotstein was responsible for managing the online production team, producers for content divisions of NBC (Entertainment News, Sports, CNBC, America's Talking, station group and International).

Previously, Josh was Vice President of Business and Strategic Development for CNBC and CNBC's sister network, America's Talking. His team was responsible for launching new products and negotiating strategic alliances and partnerships (predominantly in the interactive multimedia arena). Significant relationships were put together with Prodigy, Compton's New Media, Reuters Money Network, Mammoth Micro Productions, Adaptec Inc., PictureTel, Investment Seminars Inc., and United Airlines. New products from his group included Your Portfolio Interactive, a multimedia CD-ROM which became CNBC's (and its parent NBC's) first advance into computer software. He also served as Director of Marketing, Affiliate Marketing and TVRO Distribution for the service, and is the outgoing president of the New York Chapter of the Cable and Telecommunications Marketing Society.

Josh's online experience goes back to July, 1994 when he negotiated and managed a ground-breaking relationship with Prodigy in which America's Talking, CNBC, and the online service took the first significant steps to fully integrate on-air television and online programming. This relationship served as a template for NBC's current relationship with Microsoft and The Microsoft Network, which Josh and Lisa helped structure and negotiate.

A native of Los Angeles, Josh has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor's in comparative literature from Brown University.

Prior to Business School, he worked at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, where he was Vice President of Account Management and Supervisor of Media Planning on U.S. and International Clients including Kodak, Pepsi, Schick, Nestle and Warner-Lambert. He also worked as a Summer Associate at the Los Angeles office of the McKinsey consulting firm.

As Director of Business Development for NBC, Ms. Simpson was responsible for rapidly launching NBC News into multimedia and establishing ground-breaking deals with Microsoft, WSI, Inc., and Associated Press among others. She also oversaw the ongoing business relationships and operations of the News division. Ms. Simpson joined NBC in 1990 as part of the company's prestigious Management Associate program.

Ms. Simpson also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. A native of San Francisco, Ms. Simpson did her undergraduate work at the University of Southern California and went on to a successful career in government and politics at The White House, The U.S. Senate, and the Department of Transportation.

Together, Ms. Simpson and Mr. Grotstein were two of the chief architects behind the current multimedia strategy at NBC, where they helped found the Digital Publishing division and were jointly responsible for managing NBC's relationship with Microsoft on a day-to- day basis.

Prodigy, America's most recognized online network, is the world's largest dial-up access provider to the Internet's World Wide Web. Prodigy offers its more than two million members a range of news, weather and sports, computing, financial information; education content; games; reference materials; e-mail, bulletin boards, USENET newsgroups and Chat; travel reservation; shopping; a discount brokerage and online banking. Join Prodigy by calling 1-800-PRODIGY or visit us on the web at http://www.prodigy.com.

CONTACT: Carol Wallace

Prodigy

914-448-2496

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