Topix.net Launches Categorization Product for News, with 177 Web Sites Deployed

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Topix.net, the Internet's largest resource for online news, today announced the availability of its NewsRank(TM) categorization technology across the 177 newspaper and television station Web sites of Gannett Co., Inc. , Knight Ridder, Inc. and Tribune Company .

Articles on Topix.net powered sites provide links to related, categorized content, discovered through their NewsRank(TM) technology. Topix.net technology provides over 300,000 dedicated news channels culled from over 10,000 different news sources. Advertising revenues resulting from the incremental traffic to Topix.net news categories is shared between Topix.net and the publisher.

"Newspapers have a mission to keep their readers informed, and helping readers discover and connect to more news extends and improves that experience," said Hilary Schneider, Senior Vice President at Knight Ridder, Inc. "We're pleased at how this is helping the reader as well as contributing incremental revenues to our news online."

Initial rollout on the 177 Gannett, Tribune and Knight Ridder news sites has seen over 200 million articles categorized and driven over two million readers in the first sixty days.

"Starting the deployment on Gannett, Tribune and Knight Ridder showcases the strong working relationship we've established with the companies who had the confidence to invest in us. By opening up this service to other media companies, Topix.net is demonstrating that we're committed to providing all publishers with products that drive revenue and increased reader satisfaction," said Rich Skrenta, CEO of Topix.net. "For the first time, publishers will now be able to automate the process of providing users with more news content related to the article they're already reading, and deliver more content options to their readers."

Gannett, Knight Ridder and Tribune acquired a 75 percent stake in Topix.net in March 2005 to provide categorized news and information to their monthly audience of 30 million unique visitors. The Topix.net news channels enable users to find relevant news about where they live, the business they work in and the topics they care about.

Since its launch a little over a year ago, Topix.net has established itself as a major content and technology provider on the Internet and has secured deals to provide news headlines for Ask Jeeves, Info.com, AOL and CitySearch.

Publishers interested in licensing NewsRank(TM) for their site should contact sales@topix.net for more information.

About Topix.net:

Founded in 2002 with the specific mission of providing users with the ability to quickly and easily find targeted news on the Internet, Topix.net is a news aggregator with unique technology to find and categorize news into 300,000 topics, from Autos to ZIP code level local news. Topix.net is a privately held company with equal investment from Gannett Co., Inc. , Knight Ridder, Inc. and Tribune Company . Topix.net distributes content via partnerships with Citysearch, Ask Jeeves, My Yahoo!, Bloglines, Metro Newspapers, Newsgator, Findory, Wondir, Infospace, Link Silicon Valley and HelloMetro.com.