MacDonald Communications Corporation Announces Plans to Launch the First Global Businesswomen's Community Online.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 15, 1999--

MacDonald Communications Corporation, the leading communications company for businesswomen, and publisher of Working Woman and Working Mother magazines, announced today its plans to create the WorkingWomanNetwork.com, the first and only global media network for businesswomen on the Internet, said Jay C. MacDonald, founder and chief executive officer, MacDonald Communications Corporation.

MacDonald has partnered with Cyberworks.Net to provide interactive strategy and implementation services for the network.

The WorkingWomanNetwork.com will be an Internet-centric media network created to serve the strong and growing global marketplace of businesswomen by leveraging the loyalty and brand equity that Working Woman and Working Mother and the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) have built collectively for 70 years. MacDonald will execute this by re-engineering all of its resources into one Internet-based network that will develop content for the Web first.

"Women account for 50 percent of all Internet users," said MacDonald. "The WorkingWomanNetwork.com will create the first business community for women where e-commerce opportunities and business activities are the norm versus the existing women's sites, like iVillage and Women.com, which are targeted to all women indiscriminately, with the emphasis on the traditional fashion, beauty, health, lifestyle and parenting stereotypes."

The WorkingWomanNetwork.com will focus specifically on businesswomen's issues and provide unique, application rich, solution oriented content to its community members. Applications that allow businesswomen to develop a relationship with the WorkingWomanNetwork.com will provide information, tools and opportunities to build their business, enhance their careers and help balance their busy lives. Preliminary features will include: business news, tips and research based on the proprietary content generated by the MacDonald editorial staffs; career enhancement opportunities such as job banks derived from Working Mother's 100 Best Companies and Working Woman's Top 500 Women-Owned Businesses; small business and entrepreneurial enhancement tools such as calendaring, group mail and technical support services; online conference and event participation; as well as e-commerce opportunities. In addition, a paid portion that will only be accessible to users who purchase memberships in the WorkingWomanNetwork.com or NAFE.com premium memberships will feature applications and information exclusive to the WorkingWomanNetwork.com. The Web site will also provide an online home for all businesswomen's associations worldwide.

"By shifting MacDonald's orientation to the Web first, we can use Internet technologies to create new affinity marketing, e-commerce and solutions-based applications that generate a compelling value proposition for businesswomen online," said Richard Harrison, chief executive officer and president, Cyberworks.Net. "The WorkingWomanNetwork.com leverages and builds on our experience with Motor Trend and Petersen Publishing's online ventures."

The WorkingWomanNetwork.com will target the 31.1 million career-committed businesswomen, the highest percentage of women who access the Web, in the U.S. with international expansion planned for rapid rollout. The Working Woman and Working Mother readership represents the most "wired" segment of the women's demographic, with between 73 percent and 81 percent reporting Internet access as early as 1997. This pre-identified group not only has the greatest propensity for media consumption related to businesswomen's issues, it already identifies with MacDonald's magazine and affinity brands.

The key target audience will be brought to the WorkingWomanNetwork.com by leveraging MacDonald's proprietary access to Working Woman's 3.4 million readers, Working Mother's 2.7 million readers, NAFE's more than 150,000 members and MacDonald's conference attendee base. MacDonald is in the final stages of closing its financing and partnerships with leading Internet companies. The site is set to be launched by the end of 1999.

MacDonald Communications Corporation, a communications and media concern based in New York, is dedicated to providing intelligent products and services to affluent, professional and entrepreneurial women. Through its family of integrated businesses, including WORKING WOMAN and WORKING MOTHER magazines, MC2 conferences, the Businesswomen's Research Institute (BRI), the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE), and MC3 ventures, MCC impacts more than 6 million women per month.