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Mail.com Media Corporation Acquires DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com, Signs Multi-year Agreement With Award-winning Entertainment Business Journalist, Nikki Finke

MMC To Distribute Nikki Finke's Content Exclusively Across Its Digital Media Platform

June 23, 2009 (LOS ANGELES) — Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC), the digital media company that owns and operates the Mail.com portal and email service as well as a growing portfolio of lifestyle brands, including HollywoodLife.com, MovieLine.com and OnCars.com, announced today its acquisition of the Internet's highly respected website for original content about the infotainment industry DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com. MMC also begins a long-term, multi-year partnership with former Newsweek and Los Angeles Times and New York Magazine writer/reporter Nikki Finke, the founder and writer of Deadline Hollywood Daily and one of the foremost entertainment business journalists in the world.

Deadline Hollywood Daily is Nikki Finke's uniquely candid, informed and authoritative source for breaking news in the entertainment industry. She started DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com with the purpose of creating a 24/7 Internet version of her must-read "Deadline Hollywood" column in LA Weekly, to provide up-to-the-minute coverage of insider news and fast-breaking scoops about the entertainment industry before anybody else in town, often as the story is still unfolding, and often to the very people she's writing about. Instead of the "show", Nikki Finke is more interested in the "business" — in the story behind the story, in the truth beyond the press release, in the details the people in power don't want journalists to know and which only she can uncover and deliver with speed, accuracy and regularity.

In a recent 2009 article on Hollywood business coverage, the Financial Times called Nikki Finke "the reigning queen of Hollywood news" because of her "unrivalled network of high-level industry contacts. Since launching her Deadline Hollywood Daily site three years ago, she has earned a reputation as the best connected reporter in the industry." The New York Times wrote that the screenwriters' strike "solidified her position as a Hollywood power broker. Executive producers, writers and agents attest to her influence. The New York Observer named her its "Media Mensch Of The Year" and said "she's demonstrated that one determined reporter — with none of the support or backing of a media outfit, but also none of the entangling alliances — can, in fact, beat the big guys at their own game." And Elle magazine wrote in a profile of her, "Out West, where movies, moguls, and millions are made, Nikki Finke is the sheriff in town. From her perch as the L.A. Weekly "Deadline Hollywood" columnist and queen of DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com, she has been going after the juicy business dramas of film [and television] moguls and agents."

Nikki Finke has been the "Deadline Hollywood" columnist for LA Weekly since 2002, writing about the business, politics and culture of the infotainment industry. Together, her print column and her Deadline HollywoodDaily.com have won first place in almost every major entertainment journalism contest, both print and online, including the Southern California Journalism Awards' Entertainment Journalist Of The Year and a multiple winner of the National Entertainment Journalism Awards in which she swept every online category.

The insatiable appetite for the latest entertainment news, and increased fascination with everything Hollywood, is a worldwide phenomenon, making MMC's global digital reach a perfect platform to scale the impact of Nikki Finke's singular editorial voice. Within the first 90 days, DHD will become bicoastal with the hiring of a New York City-based senior journalist who will report to Finke. The addition of DHD to MMC's expanding portfolio of lifestyle brands strengthens the company's position as an important player in the entertainment space. With more than 10 million unique visitors per month prior to this acquisition, MMC will continue its rapid growth as one of the most dynamic companies to watch in the digital media arena.

"We're thrilled to be working with Nikki. As a world-class journalist, she is unequivocally recognized by the entertainment and business community as a unique voice and leading authority on news coverage of major media, especially Hollywood. With this acquisition and partnership now complete, her DeadlineHollyoodDaily.com can continue to extend its reach and influence and finally have the web platform it deserves," said Jay Penske, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of MMC. "Ever since the first scoop of Nikki's that I read, I quickly realized that she has raised the bar on — if not changed the game of — entertainment journalism; and her work perfectly embodies our mission at MMC: to provide the most original and most authoritative content on the web."


"I was fortunate to have had much interest and many offers from major corporations and media companies to consider over the past 18 months," said Nikki Finke, whose title will now become General Manager, Editor in Chief, and Founder of DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com. "First, I had to ensure that my DeadlineHollywood Daily.com would continue to be an independent editorial voice — and I would retain complete control over everything reported on the website -- so that DHD's credibility with its readers could remain intact. Second, I needed to make certain that an advanced infrastructure and capable team were in place, to bring DHD to the next level. FinaIly, I wanted to join a major Internet player that was ambitious, up-and-coming, and far-sighted. Jay Penske and MMC gave me all those assurances and more.
This deal was worth waiting for."

About Nikki Finke
The native New Yorker and Wellesley College graduate has been reporting from Los Angeles since 1986. Nikki Finke's journalism career has included years as an AP foreign correspondent in Moscow and London, Newsweek correspondent in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, and Los Angeles Times staff writer covering entertainment and features. From 1995 through 2000, she was West Coast Editor and Hollywood columnist first for the New York Observer and then for New York Magazine. She joined LA Weekly as its Deadline Hollywood columnist in 2002 and started DeadlineHollywood Daily.com on March 3, 2006.

She was recently named among "100 Leaders You Can Learn From On Twitter" in the journalists category, and included among the 2008 Time Magazine "Time 100" finalists. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and Esquire.

About DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com
Deadline Hollywood Daily is the 24/7 Internet version of Nikki Finke's LA Weekly "Deadline Hollywood" print column. She daily uses DHD as a forum to break news about the infotainment industry, which is why The Drudge Report, The Huffington Post, Gawker, Defamer, Hollywood Wiretap, MediaBistro, Jim Romenesko's Media News, TV Tattle, USA Today's Pop Candy, IMDB and other blogs and websites regularly link to her many scoops. "She never pulls her punches. So come for her cynicism. And stay for the subversion," has been DHD's motto from its inception. DHD is regularly included on lists of top entertainment websites, most recently the "50 Best Websites For Moviemakers 2009".

About Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC)
Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC) is a leading digital media company founded by Jay Penske in 2004. The company owns and operates the Mail.com portal, a global multi-media platform. In addition, MMC owns a unique portfolio of lifestyle brands that provide the web's best original content in categories including entertainment, sports, news, finance, health, shopping, fashion, and automotive. Mail.com, HollywoodLife.com, OnCars.com, MovieLine.com, DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com, Fan.com, Young Hollywood Awards, and Style Awards, are all part of the expanding MMC portfolio. For more information about MMC, please visit http://corp.mail.com.
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For media inquiries, please contact:

Mail.com Media Corporation
Los Angeles, California
press@corp.mail.com

Nikki Finke | General Manager, Editor in Chief, Founder
DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com
deadlinehollywood@gmail.com