Reed Exhibition Makes Major Financial Investment Commitment in Rightscenter.com.

Business Editors

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 2000

rightscenter.com, the leading online exchange of intellectual property rights, has secured a major financial commitment from Reed Exhibition Companies (REC), owner and operator of book fairs throughout the world.

Reed Exhibition Companies' events include BookExpo America (BEA) and the London Book Fair (LBF), both of whom have also announced strategic marketing alliances with rightscenter.com. Exact figures of the financial arrangement were not disclosed.

"This is a substantial investment on the part of Reed Exhibitions," noted Kip Parent, cofounder and president of rightscenter.com. "Reed's commitment is an important endorsement of the value of this new technology, which is going to revolutionize the way rights are bought and sold in the publishing industry."

"The new global marketplace requires a new way of doing business, and we feel that rightscenter.com is leading the way," observed Courtney Muller, Industry Vice President and Show Manager for BookExpo America. Ms. Muller also oversees all international book fair business for Reed Exhibitions in her role as Multi-National Industry Coordinator for REC's book publishing portfolio. Muller continued: "The services rightscenter.com provides are very much in line with the goals of BEA and LBF. They offer enormous savings in both time and expense, and dramatically extend the reach of publishing professionals around the world."

Helen Shiers, Exhibition Director for the London Book Fair, noted: "This is a clear indication of how important the rights business is to our future. Our strategic marketing alliance, along with this financial investment, confirm our view that rightscenter.com presents an exciting opportunity for rights trading on the Internet."

Rightscenter.com is designed to improve communication among publishing professionals and to reduce the high costs associated with submissions and tracking of proposals, manuscripts, and books by facilitating the exchange of these materials over the Internet. Rightscenter.com offers a secure environment called an "extranet" -- a private Internet accessible only by members and invited parties. This extranet allows agents, publishers, scouts and sub-agents to organize and exchange information quickly and reliably, and to interact one-on-one with a wide audience anytime, anywhere, all verified by an efficient tracking system.

Reed Exhibition's investment follows upon the strategic marketing alliances rightscenter.com announced earlier this year with BEA and LBF. As part of this initiative, BEA and LBF are sponsoring free usage of rightscenter.com for show attendees. This agreement extends to all Reed Exhibition book show exhibitors, and gives them 1 free year unlimited use of the secure marketplace for all titles activated on rightscenter.com before July 2000. Other plans include placing rightscenter.com kiosks on the show floor at BEA and the International Rights Centre at London Book Fair. These Internet-enabled kiosks will enable show attendees to review and update online catalogs and titles, as well as use rightscenter.com's messaging system to communicate with others at the convention or around the world. Further details are to be announced.

About rightscenter.com

Rightscenter.com is the leading online exchange of intellectual property rights for rights buyers and sellers. Founded in October 1997, this publishing marketplace enables users to connect with publishers, agents, sub-agents, and scouts around the globe to instantly submit and automatically track materials securely and efficiently.

Rightscenter.com's team is comprised of world-class technology, security, and publishing industry veterans. Its president, Kip Parent, is an innovator in online technology who is credited with developing the world's first commercial intranet and who pioneered the development of extranets. Rightscener.com is based in Palo Alto, Calif. For more information, please visit www.rightscenter.com.

About Reed Exhibition Companies

Reed Exhibition Companies (REC) is a world leader in creating high profile, targeted industry events where buyers and suppliers come together to do business. Every year REC events bring together some 100,000 suppliers and over 5.5 million buyers from around the world. Today, REC events are held in 27 countries through the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia/Pacific, and are organized by 24 fully staffed offices. REC's portfolio of over 350 events serves 45 industries in 11 key sectors.

BookExpo America and the London Book Fair are two of the five Reed events in the REC Global Book Publishing Network. These include the Asia International Book Fair, Salon du Livre: Paris Book Fair, and the Tokyo International Book Fair. As a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group, a world- leading business and information provider, REC offers integrated market access programs covering exhibitions, trade publications, direct marketing and the Internet. For a comprehensive BEA event program or for other information concerning BookExpo America, please call 800/840-5614 or 203/840-5614 (international) or visit the BEA Web Site at http:/www.bookexpo.reedexpo.com.