OPA Sites Now Engage 79% of U.S. Internet Audience

New York, NY – October 21, 2008 – Nearly eight out of ten Americans who use the Internet visit an Online Publishers Association (OPA) site, according to new comScore data for August. The OPA also announced today it has recently added ten new Members and six new Supporters to the Association.

OPA Member companies, all of which are providers of high quality, premium online content, have a combined, unduplicated reach of 149.3 million monthly unique visitors, or 79% of the total U.S. online population.* They include a great diversity of content, with the leading publishers of general and political news, sports and entertainment information, product reviews, travel information, business and financial news and more.

A complete list of members can be found here.

“Our new Members are among the most respected online publishers, and they represent a wide array of digital content,” said OPA President Pam Horan. “One of the most important characteristics of these – and all OPA members – is the rich, high quality environment they offer advertisers. With valuable content, highly-engaged audiences and unparalleled levels of trust, OPA members are simply better at delivering results.”

Horan continued, “The OPA’s member sites now reach nearly 80% of the American online audience, making it clear they are essential to internet users’ daily lives. The content provided by OPA sites is among the most relied upon anywhere on the Web.”

The new OPA members are:

• American Express Publishing (www.amexpub.com) – including sites for Travel + Leisure (www.travelandleisure.com), Food & Wine (www.foodandwine.com)
• BeliefNet (www.beliefnet.com)
• Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc (www.cnhi.com) – including sites for newspapers in 21 U.S. states
• Harvard Business Publishing (www.harvardbusiness.org) – including HBR.org
• HuffingtonPost (www.huffingtonpost.com)
• National Public Radio (www.npr.org)
• Readers Digest (www.rd.com) – including www.allrecipes.com and sites for Reader's Digest (www.readersdigest.com), Every Day with Rachael Ray (www.rachaelraymag.com), The Family Handyman (www.familyhandyman.com), Taste of Home (www.tasteofhome.com) and others
• Reed Business Information (www.reedbusiness.com) – including 80 business information Websites
• TopTenReviews (www.toptenreviews.com)
• Westwood One (www.westwoodone.com) - creator of traffic, news, and entertainment content for more than 450 sites including portals, radio, television and newspapers

OPA membership is open to quality online publishers that principally create and deliver their own content. Organizations must adhere to the highest online publishing standards, and before becoming a member, demonstrate their commitment to these standards for at least one year. Members must also meet a number of specific criteria, including having a dedicated online content production staff, having staff committed to generating revenue, and using fair and honest consumer marketing tactics.

OPA Supporter membership includes companies that provide a wide range of services to the online publishing industry. In order to become a Supporter, companies must endorse the OPA’s publishing principles.

The New OPA Supporters are:

• Audit Bureau of Circulations – ABC Interactive (www.accessabc.com)
• Brooks Bell Interactive (www.brooks-bell.com)
• Cisco Media Solutions Group (www.cisco.com/go/media)
• Collective Media (www.collective-media.com)
• ScanScout (www.scanscout.com)
• ShortTail Media (www.shorttailmedia.com)

About the OPA

Founded in June 2001, the Online Publishers Association is an industry trade organization whose mission is to advance the interests of high-quality online publishers before the advertising community, the press, the government and the public. Members of OPA represent the standards in Internet publishing with respect to editorial quality and integrity, credibility and accountability. OPA member sites have a combined, unduplicated reach of 149.3 million visitors, or 79% percent of the total U.S. Internet audience (Source: comScore Media Metrix, August 2008 combined home/work/university data). For more information, go to www.online-publishers.org.