FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SD TIMES GAINS MARKET SHARE;
NOW SIXTH-LARGEST 
DEVELOPER/TECHNICAL PUB

Adscope report shows that the software development industry's first newspaper continues to make strong gains in a recessionary market

Oyster Bay, N.Y., September 25, 2002 - BZ Media LLC's SD Times, the first newspaper for the software development industry, continues gaining market strength, even during the recent advertising downturn, and has become the sixth-largest publication in the Developer/Technical publication category, according to data from Eugene, Ore.-based Adscope Inc., an independent advertising-tracking service.

In Adscope's most recent report on the Developer/Technical category, reported in the September 20, 2002, issue of Min's B-to-B newsletter, SD Times was described as having carried 321.08 pages of advertising during the first eight months of 2002. This represents a 5.6% market share in a 23-publication field.

Adscope's report placed SD Times in sixth place in the category, behind such long-established publications as Penton Media's Windows & .NET Magazine (formerly known as Windows 2000 Magazine), CMP Media's Dr. Dobb's Journal and MSDN Magazine, which occupied the top three slots.

Compared with the same period in 2001, SD Times has passed CMP Media's Embedded Systems Programming, which has since fallen from fourth to 12th place within the same group of 23 publications. SD Times has also overtaken Fawcette's Visual Studio Magazine (formerly Visual Basic Programmer's Journal), which has fallen from sixth to eighth place.

"SD Times continues making headway against a strong wind," said Ted Bahr, president of BZ Media LLC, who pointed out that Adscope's report showed that total ad pages in the Developer/Technical category declined from 7632.27 in the first eight months in 2001 to 5,741.89 pages in the same period in 2002.

"Today, enterprises are extremely budget-conscious with IT spending -- more so than ever before. Before adopting a new platform, choosing a new tool or embracing a new technology, they want to see business benefits and fast ROI," said Bahr. "That means that vendors must market to software development managers, not to line programmers. And indeed, advertisers have learned that SD Times, with its twice-monthly frequency, tabloid-size format and emphasis on news and analysis, is the best way to reach those key influencers."