Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment and PRIMEDIA Announce New Media Partnership.Business & Entertainment Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 2000 Two Companies To Combine Premier Soap Opera Web Sites - Creating Dominant Online Resource for Soap Opera Enthusiasts Sony Pictures Digital Sony Pictures Digital, first known as Columbia TriStar Interactive, then Sony Pictures Interactive Network (or SPiN), is known as the digital website interactive creator for Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) that was established in 1997. Entertainment and PRIMEDIA (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : PRM PRM Partner Relationship Management PRM Parameter PRM Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (US State Department) PRM Partidul Romania Mare (Romania Mare Party) PRM Professional Risk Manager ) today announced they have signed a letter of intent to combine the two companies' leading soap opera enthusiast Web sites - creating the dominant online resource for soap opera enthusiasts around the world. PRIMEDIA and Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment are the premier players in the soap opera industry. Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment owns SoapCity.com, the number one Web site in the category and owns and produces two leading soap opera television shows: "The Young and the Restless," and "Days of Our Lives" (with Corday Productions). PRIMEDIA owns Soap Opera Digest Soap Opera Digest is a magazine chronicling the stories airing on American soap operas and the off-screen lives of the actors appearing on them. The magazine first debuted in November 1975, with John Aniston, Ron Tomme, Audrey Peters, Birgitta Tolksdorf, Jerry Lacy and Tudi and Soap Opera Weekly Soap Opera Weekly is a soap magazine which features soap operas and soap stars. It launched in November, 1989. In 2000 the magazine expanded its focus to include coverage of prime-time drama and reality series with soapy themes and continuing storylines. , the dominant titles in the soap opera magazine Soap Opera Magazine was a weekly periodical devoted to interviews and recaps of American soap operas. The magazine was run for many years by American Media until the company, who had lost money for years, decided to cease publication of the magazine, focusing instead on category, and operates Soapdigest.com, the number two Web site for soap opera fans. "The combination of these two Web sites creates an online juggernaut for the soap opera fan - fans who are passionate about soaps - and PRIMEDIA is all about servicing passions," said Tom Rogers, chairman and chief executive officer of PRIMEDIA. "SoapCity.com is the first choice among online soap opera fans and is regarded as the marquee Web site of leading soap opera shows and stars. Sony's two televised soap operas reach millions of viewers each day. Combined with our strength in editorial content, commitment to the online community and a passion for serving the soap opera category, this new venture will leverage leading-edge technology to offer compelling information across multiple platforms." "Soap Opera Digest is the marquis brand name in the industry," said Yair Landau, president, Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment. "We are thrilled to partner with PRIMEDIA on this venture and look forward to creating a site that is dynamic, content-rich and technologically state-of-the-art. We look forward to an aggressive cross-promotion program on both PRIMEDIA's print publications - Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly - as well as on our leading televised soap opera productions." The deal is subject to the signing of a definitive agreement and completion of due diligence Research; analysis; your homework. This term has caught on in all industries, because it sounds so "wired." Who would want to do analysis or research when they can do due diligence. See wired. . SoapCity, located at www.soapcity.com, is Columbia TriStar Interactive's premiere Soap Opera destination. The site provides extensive coverage, updated daily, for ten daytime dramas and is also the official site for Columbia TriStar properties like The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives. SoapCity is driven by a fan-based community eager to connect with their favorite shows. With live Web casts, weekly celebrity chats, fashion and style reviews, up-to-the-minute news and its new e-commerce destination, SoapCity Store; SoapCity has emerged as the top Soap Opera entertainment hub online. PRIMEDIA's Soap Opera Digest provides the latest, hottest, most accurate behind-the-scenes information for America's most passionate soap fans. Issues feature the latest on-screen and off-screen news, celebrity profiles, soap synopses and the stars' views on such topics as parenting, food, fashion and beauty. Readers of PRIMEDIA's Soap Opera Weekly turn to its pages every week for timely and accurate coverage of fast-breaking stories, gossip and behind-the-scenes information. It presents weekly storylines for all network soap operas, profiles stars' lives and lifestyles, contains calendars of personal appearances, and offers a look at behind-the-scenes soap opera business news and events. PRIMEDIA's soap opera publications reach more than 1.5 million fans. About Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment (SPDE SPDE Service Provider Delivery Environment SPDE stochastic partial differential equation SPDE Solid Phase Dynamic Extraction SPDE Solar Plasma Diagnostic Experiment SPDE Spedus Corp (stock symbol; New York, NY) ), an operating unit operating unit A type of operating company that engages in transactions with outsiders and that is owned by another business. For example, in 1995 the stockholders of Capital Cities/ABC approved a $19 billion merger with the Walt Disney Company, whereupon of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE SPE - Software Practice and Experience ), oversees the activities of SPE's digital production and online assets which include Sony Pictures Imageworks Sony Pictures Imageworks, Inc. is an Academy Award-winning, state-of-the-art visual effects and character animation company. Individuals at the company have been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Oscars for their work on Spider-Man 2 , Sony Online Entertainment Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is a game development and game publishing division of Sony that is best known for creating massively multiplayer online games, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, PlanetSide, and Star Wars Galaxies and Columbia Tri-Star Interactive. SPDE focuses on three areas: 1) producing and developing of visual effects and computer-generated imaging (CGI CGI in full Common Gateway Interface. Specification by which a Web server passes data between itself and an application program. Typically, a Web user will make a request of the Web server, which in turn passes the request to a CGI application program. ), digital character animation, and original content for motion picture, television, online and PlayStation audiences; 2) tapping SPE's film and television libraries and its talent relationships to develop new forms of online content, games and interactive programming; and 3) leading SPE's efforts to provide video-on-demand, interactive television and the distribution of other forms of digital content and services over the emerging broadband networks. About PRIMEDIA PRIMEDIA Inc., with 1999 sales of $1.7 billion, is a targeted media company with several hundred print, video and Internet properties focused on consumer and business-to-business audiences. Some key businesses include Seventeen, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Chicago, Fly Fisherman, Channel One Network and 16 other specialty satellite television and TV distribution services, Horticulture, Modern Bride, American Baby, IntelliChoice, Telephony, American Demographics and Films for the Humanities & Sciences. The Company owns and operates more than 215 Web sites and other Internet properties. This release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning PRIMEDIA's operations, economic performance and financial condition. These statements are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates, which are inherently subject to uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond the control of Company, and reflect future business decisions, which are subject to change. Some of these assumptions may not materialize, and unanticipated events will occur which can affect the Company's results. |
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