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Tribune Contact:
Christine Hennessey
chennessey@tribune.com
312/222-4850

   
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Tacoda Contact:
George Simpson
georgehsimpson@att.net
212/297.1838


Tribune Interactive Partners with Tacoda Systems to Provide Targeted Advertising Solutions to Marketers

Matching consumers and advertisers through behavioral and geographic user information

CHICAGO, October 22, 2002 -- Tribune Interactive, Inc., a leader in interactive news and information Web sites and a subsidiary of Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB), today announced that it has entered an agreement with Tacoda Systems, Inc., a provider of data integration software and audience management systems, that will enable Tribune Interactive to provide targeted advertising opportunities to marketers and provide premium editorial content to users. Through its registration database and Tacoda’s technology, Tribune Interactive will analyze its nearly 9 million unique visitors* who visit its network of more than 50 news and information Web sites monthly. That network includes chicagotribune.com, latimes.com and newsday.com.

"The unique value of the Internet is that it gives us the ability to target advertisers’ messages directly to consumers," said Dana Hayes, vice president/sales for Tribune’s online national sales team. "With Tacoda’s technology, we can better understand who and how people use our Web sites and then, in turn, offer advertisers the ability to deliver specific marketing messages to specific groups of consumers."

Through Tribune Interactive’s online registration information and the Tacoda Audience Management System, Tribune Interactive will analyze online audience demographic and geographic information, behavioral patterns and traffic trends of both registered and non-registered site users.

The data will help Tribune Interactive to better qualify audience value to national and local advertisers and create new types of targeted advertising products, such as customer profile matching, affinity group and cross-channel campaigns. In addition, it will help improve site programming and marketing; identify heavy users and their interests; and gain insight into the differences in traffic patterns between in-market and out-of-market users. The data will also be a resource to Web producers when developing premium editorial and entertainment content based on audience interests.

" By tracking and recording site usage, including IP address, Tribune Interactive can build profiles of users that offer superior response to various marketers. Predictive customer behavior models will target specific groups of users for specific messages," says Dave Morgan, Tacoda Systems president. "For example, a Tribune Interactive reader who actively checks airfare, and lives in Los Angeles, is probably a superior customer target for Southwest Airlines. The number of target variables is infinite, but the medium can provide that kind of qualification. Publishers who deliver qualified customers to online advertisers will be rewarded for doing so."

Tribune Interactive will continue to safeguard user privacy according to the privacy policies of its Web sites.

*Data based on September 2002 Nielsen//NetRatings

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Tribune Interactive operates leading interactive news and information Web sites in major markets across the United States, including 18 of the top 30 markets. The sites attract nearly 9 million unique visitors per month, and rank among the top 20 interactive news/information networks in the country.

Tacoda Systems is a New York City-based enterprise software company that helps online publishers grow their advertising and transactional revenues by profiling and targeting the most valuable segments of their audiences. Tacoda Systems manages consumer profiles built on prospect interactions, not just customer transactions, thus providing a cost-effective relationship management tool. By enabling commerce and web content publishers to put a monetary value on each site visitor, Tacoda Systems helps media companies and the marketing industry begin automated marketing to audience segments with the highest revenue potential. In addition to Tribune Interactive, the company's customers include Forbes.com, weather.com, CondeNet and Advance Internet.

   
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