America Online, Meredith Corporation Forge Content Alliance

Posted on April 20, 1999

America Online, Inc. and Meredith Corporation have joined forces to provide AOL's 17 million members access to cooking, gardening, health, family finance, and lifestyle information provided by such popular brands as Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal, Family Money and Crayola Kids magazines.

As part of the agreement, content and related links from the Better Homes and Gardens website, Ladies' Home Journal site, Family Money site, and Crayola Kids site will be distributed across AOL's leading brands.

Three Meredith sites -- bhg.com, crayolakids.com and familymoney.com -- will be linked directly from various anchor tenant positions within America Online's Interests, Kids Only, and Personal Finance Channels, respectively. In addition, Better Homes and Gardens will be the premier sponsor of a new AOL recipe database, including a significant collection of Better Homes and Gardens award-winning recipes. Content from the four Meredith websites also will be integrated on other AOL properties, including CompuServe, the value leader in Internet access, AOL.COM and AOL's Digital City.

``As the leader in home and family publishing, Meredith has content expertise that focuses on consumer and family interests,'' said Meredith Publishing Group President Chris Little. ``Meanwhile, America Online, the world's leading interactive service, provides outstanding distribution and exposure. We think it will significantly increase traffic to our magazines' already popular and successful Web sites.

Meredith Corporation is one of the nation's leading media and marketing companies with core competencies in magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting and integrated marketing. Meredith publishes 20 subscription magazines including Better Homes and Gardens and owns 12 television stations. Additionally, Meredith has nearly 300 books in print, and has established marketing partnerships with some of America's leading companies including The Home Depot, Kraft Foods and Nestle USA.