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PD in the News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Stacey Jones, Marketing Communications Manager
Planet Discover
(319) 261-1116
stacey@planetdiscover.com

Startribune.com Offers Site Visitors a Powerful Local Search Using Planet Discover’s Integrated Search Technology

Covington, KY. April 12, 2005 - The Star Tribune in Minneapolis/St. Paul last week announced the implementation of Planet Discover’s Integrated Search on startribune.com to provide users with expansive local search results. This technology enables newspapers like the Star Tribune to meet their consumers’ increasing demand for local information and positions newspaper sites as the leading search resource for the local marketplace.

"This new search capability gives startribune.com for the first time the ability to effectively reach into the community and provide relevant information from websites and local yellow page listings,” said Ken Riddick, executive director, Interactive Media at the Star Tribune. “It also simultaneously retrieves content quickly from multiple sources within startribune.com and provides our audience organized results. It puts the control – the choices – in the hands of the user and enhances the value of our advertisers’ efforts.”

The search returns results from more than 100,000 Twin Cities yellow page listings, 14,000 community websites and more than 900,000 web pages.  Immediate growth in these numbers is expected as local businesses and community organizations have the ability to easily add and update information using a form on startribune.com.

Through Integrated Search, these results are combined with results from content sources including news stories, classified ads, newspaper ads, and vertical sources such as cars and homes. All results are organized into individual panes and delivered on a single result page. A unique “expand” feature allows users to see more results in each pane without collapsing the original result set.  Integrated Search is the only platform to deliver such a wide array of content with a single search box, a single result set, and with the capability to browse additional results without leaving the result page.

“Together with startribune.com, we have created a new standard with an innovative approach to local search, “ said Terry Millard, president, Planet Discover. “Integrated search provides a satisfying user experience by delivering relevant and actionable results; it gives Star Tribune advertisers additional exposure and new opportunities to reach local consumers; and it furthers startribune.com’s position as the premiere provider of local information in the Twin Cities market.”

“The goal of McClatchy’s local search initiative is to provide consumers with search functionality that allows them to quickly find local market and merchant information,” said Christian A. Hendricks, vice president, Interactive, McClatchy. “We believe Planet Discover’s search technology coupled with our wide-array of local information to be an useful and effective solution for consumer and advertisers.”

This newest search offering represents the second implementation of Planet Discover’s Integrated Search technology for the Star Tribune. In December 2004, startribune.com launched an enhanced search function on its Shopping and Classified channel resulting in a 64 percent increase in searches and 30 percent increase in page views.

About Planet Discover
Planet Discover’s Integrated Search solution provides publishers with the versatility, flexibility, and scalability needed to deliver robust local search results from multiple content sources.  Our platform is designed to deliver those results quickly and reliably to ensure the highest standard of performance and optimal user experience. Our technology gives users the depth of content they expect from publishers. It enables publishers to leverage their assets while building profitable revenue streams and strengthening their position as the best source for local information.

About the Star Tribune
The Star Tribune Company, a news and information company serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul area is owned by The McClatchy Company of Sacramento, Calif. (NYSE:MNI). The Star Tribune newspaper is one of the top 20 largest newspapers in the nation, with a daily circulation of 381,094 and a Sunday circulation of 678,648 (per Audit Bureau of Circulation report 09/04). The company's Web site, www.startribune.com, is the most frequently used local news and information service for the Twin Cities market. The Star Tribune Foundation has been supporting Twin Cities' communities since 1945 and currently distributes about $3 million annually. On the Net: The Star Tribune Company: www.startribunecompany.com, and The McClatchy Company: www.mcclatchy.com.