Salon.com Announces Partnership Deal Between MP3Lit.com And Random House

Deal Delivers Author Readings and Interviews on the Web

Published June 30, 2000 12:14AM (EDT)

Salon.com (Nasdaq: SALN) (http://www.salon.com) today announced that its digital audio company, MP3Lit.com, Inc., has signed a deal with Random House's Bold Type (http://www.boldtype.com) to offer free MP3 and RealAudio clips from Bold Type's recordings of author readings and interviews. The first recording, Nathan Englander reading an excerpt from his acclaimed book "For the Relief of Unbearable Urges," goes live today at: http://www.mp3lit.com/boldtype .

Since 1997, Bold Type has served as an online forum for authors and readers. The site offers in-depth author interviews, excerpts from books as well as writer's original contributions. Authors featured on Bold Type include Margaret Atwood, Ha Jin, Robert Lowell, John Updike, Nathan Englander, Elizabeth McCracken, Jonathan Lethem, Richard Price, Jon Krakauer and dozens more.

"Bold Type has consistently produced some of the most exciting and compelling literary audio on the Web," said Gary Hustwit, CEO of MP3Lit.com. "We look forward to introducing their content to the millions of MP3Lit and Salon users."

Says Larry Weissman, editor-in-chief of Bold Type and director of new business development for Random House, Inc., "Bold Type is delighted to partner with a company with the vision, technological savvy and the reach to get our unique readings to the right audience. MP3Lit and Salon are two of the premier sites for readers of new fiction, and we look forward to working with them to widen the awareness about Random House, Inc.'s literary works and their authors."

Future recordings will include National Book Award-winner Ha Jin reading from his novel "Waiting," Michael Paterniti reading from the forthcoming "Driving Mr. Albert," and recordings from Bret Easton Ellis, Aimee Bender, Vikram Seth and more.

About Bold Type: Bold Type (http://www.boldtype.com) is an online literary magazine of Random House, Inc. Random House, Inc. is the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher. The publishing divisions of Random House publish more than 3,500 new adult and children's titles annually in hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback, audio, and electronic formats in the U.S. Random House, Inc. is a unit of the Book Division of Bertelsmann AG, a leading international media company.

About MP3Lit.com: MP3Lit.com (http://www.mp3lit.com), was the first Web site focused solely on offering quality spoken word and audio literature in the MP3 format. The company, which was founded in August 1999 and acquired by Salon.com in May 2000, offers hundreds of recordings of short stories, novel excerpts, poems, essays, interviews and more in both MP3 and Real Audio formats -- all free to the consumer. The company has strategic partnerships with AOL's Spinner.com, RioPort.com, Real Networks and other Web sites, as well as Random House, Time Warner and HarperCollins.

About Salon.com: Salon.com ( http://www.salon.com ), founded in 1995 by David Talbot, is an Internet media company that produces a network of 12 award-winning, original content sites, maintains Salon Shop, an e-commerce gateway, and hosts two communities -- Table Talk and The WELL. In May 2000, Salon acquired MP3Lit.com, the pioneering Web site offering quality spoken word and audio literature recordings in MP3 and Real Audio formats. Salon.com currently has relationships with more than 325 advertisers including industry leaders such as IBM, Lexus, Microsoft, EDS, Virgin Megastore Online and Intel. In December 1999, Salon.com announced a content and equity agreement with Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation and NBC. Strategic distribution partners include Lycos, AltaVista, Reuters, CNN.com, and CNET as well as wireless innovators AvantGo and Rocket eBooks. Salon.com content is also syndicated to print publications through United Features Syndicate. The site had 3.7 million unique visitors in March 2000.

SOURCE Salon.com


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