Salon.com (Nasdaq: SALN - news; www.salon.com), one of the leading Internet media companies, and
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Italy's leading publishing company, today announced a licensing agreement that will provide Mondadori, through its portal
Mondadori.com (www.mondadori.com), with editorial content from Salon.com.
In the first of a number of planned initiatives in Europe, Salon.com will provide Mondadori with its award-winning content, including Salon News,
Technology, Arts and Entertainment, Travel and Health. In addition to the licensing agreement, Salon.com will receive a share of advertising revenue from
Mondadori.com pages that feature Salon.com content and will also have the right to sell some of the advertising space on those pages.
``We're thrilled to be partnering with Mondadori, one of the great European publishing companies to expand the Salon.com brand internationally,'' said
Michael O'Donnell, Salon.com CEO & President. ``We're seeing increased demand from European consumers and sponsors for Salon.com and this alliance
with Mondadori begins to extend our reach internationally, just as the Internet is experiencing huge penetration increases.''
According to the Computer Industry Almanac (February 2000), over 57% of the Internet's population in 2000 will be outside the United States. That number
will grow to almost 70% of the Internet's population outside the U.S. by 2005.
``We've built a great information engine at Salon.com that we're monetizing in many ways, not only through sponsorship and advertising revenue, but
increasingly through syndication and now international licensing with this agreement with Mondadori,'' O'Donnell said.
Mondadori.com launched last year, and includes content areas covering news, leisure, women's issues and technology. In addition to Salon.com, the site
features material from ZDNet and Vol Ftp, Italy's leading provider of down-loadable software, games and images. It also includes content from other
Mondadori publications as well as Einaudi, Electa and Elemond books.
``Salon.com is one of the few U.S. Internet brands that has international appeal and we look forward to marketing Salon.com within Mondadori.com to build
a sizable audience and increased revenues internationally,'' said Maurizio Costa, CEO of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore.
Mondadori.com also has international relationships with AltaVista and Microsoft, with which they are developing the first electronic book for the Italian
market, and aims to build up its Internet position through international alliances with Internet leaders like Salon.com and by developing e-commerce.
``We also plan to explore syndication of Salon.com information onto mobile phones and wireless devices through Mondadori.com,'' added Costa. ``Their
content is so portable and a natural distribution vehicle to expose millions of Europeans and Italians, in specific to Salon.com's compelling information.''
Salon.com's international efforts are being led by Executive Vice President Andrew Ross. Ross, a media veteran and one of Salon.com's co-founders, was a
foreign news editor with The San Francisco Examiner as well as an international reporter with The Guardian newspaper, based in the United Kingdom.
``We've received incredibly favorable reviews from European media outlets for Salon.com's unique style and perspective and have constantly been asked to
bring our popular brand to Europe,'' said Ross. ``With this first alliance with Mondadori in Italy, we plan to open up new audiences, creating a significant
following and incremental revenue streams.''
About Salon.com
Salon.com (www.salon.com; AOL Keyword: Salon) is an Internet media company that produces a network of 11 original content sites and two communities
-- Table Talk and The Well. Salon.com was founded by David Talbot, a former
editor at the San Francisco Examiner. Premier advertisers and sponsors of
Salon.com include IBM, Lexus, Microsoft, Virgin Megastore Online, Intel,
eVineyards, DrKoop.com, barnesandnoble.com and EDS.
Salon.com has relationships with more than 325 advertising sponsors. In December 1999, the site had 3.4 million unique visitors as audited by Audit Bureau
of Circulations.
Salon.com recently announced an equity and content agreement with Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation and
NBC, to develop online content and Salon.com's first television series, targeted to air on Bravo, the Film and Arts Network, in Fall 2000.
Recently, Salon.com announced a content agreement with Red Hat, a leading provider of open-source and Linux software, and with Adobe.com, the fourth
largest, U.S.-based personal software company. Salon.com also distributes its content to leading online and Internet companies such as America Online
(AOL). Other Internet sites that carry Salon.com content on a regular basis include Lycos, Go.com, Alta Vista, Reuters, CNN.com and Cnet. In the wireless
and handheld arenas, Salon.com has signed content distribution agreements with AvantGo and Rocket eBooks. Salon.com also syndicates through United
Features Syndicate and has an e-commerce ticketing and advertising sponsorship sales agreement with CultureFinder.
About Arnoldo Mondadori Editore
Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Italy's leading magazine and book publisher, was founded in 1907. The group's business activities are organized into six areas:
books, magazines and advertising, printing, direct marketing, computer publishing and new media, online.
With annual revenues, in 1998, of more than $1.2 billion, a staff of around 5,100 and an extremely solid financial structure, Mondadori covers the entire range
of publishing activities, from the creation of products to printing, distribution and sales.
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