NEWS RELEASE

NEW FORUM PUBLISHERS INC. LAUNCHES BEYOND BOOKS^TM

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 4, 1999 -- New Forum Publishers Inc. announces the launch of Beyond Books™, an Internet-based source of educational content that parallels, expands-on and deepens current curricula in the nation's high schools and middle schools. Beyond Books programs are now available to every school with Internet access.

Beyond Books answers the question: Now that we have all this technology in our school, how can we use it to the fullest advantage for our students?

"Our concept with Beyond Books harnesses the power of the Internet as an educational tool," said James S. Cassano, president and chief executive of New Forum Publishers, Inc. "More than just another web site or online version of a textbook, all content on Beyond Books is directly related to courses of study. Our content is unique in its depth, breadth and originality. Students may engage and interact with this digital content, with famous guests in live chats, and with each other."

To make the content as engaging as possible, Beyond Books commissions experienced teachers to create specific, original subject content providing a foundation for inquiry, discovery, discussion and further exploration. Beyond Books' research staff scours the Web for pictures, graphics and images to illustrate the content. They review, rate and summarize the best websites and link them to the Beyond Books curricula. This intense research reveals hard-to-find sites with unique course-relevant content enabling students to explore and understand a topic or subject in great depth.

"When students and teachers research a topic, traditional online searches will turn up a few standard sites and a lot of useless, irrelevant references," said Cassano. "Considerable resources remain untapped simply because commonly used search engines do not index them. Beyond Books provides easier access to many more uniquely relevant sites, reduces the time spent on comprehensive research, facilitates learning, and enables teachers and students to do a better job all around."

Several times each year, Beyond Books offers live chats with academic experts and Pulitzer Prize winning authors as classroom guests in each program. Chat sessions are textual with some audio files. These visiting lecturers make subjects come alive, with students having the opportunity to ask the experts questions during or in advance of the session. Sessions remain archived on Beyond Books for access by those unable to join the live session.

This year, Beyond Books is adding the capability for students to create their own presentations on the Web for sharing with classmates and parents. In addition, Beyond Books also will facilitate online discussion among distant classrooms on topics of common interest.

A forum on the site will enable teachers to share ideas, lesson plans and questions on using Beyond Books resources with other teachers around the country.

Beyond Books begins service with two programs in U.S. history for middle school and high school students: From British Arrival through British Departure subsequent to the Revolutionary War, and The Age of Jackson to Reconstruction, following the Civil War.

Under development for release between mid-November and late December are:

• Additional programs covering U.S. History:
  • Creation of a New Nation (from the Constitution to the Monroe Doctrine)
  • The Gilded Age to the Depression (1896 to the Depression)
  • From the Depression to the New Millennium

• Programs on Non-U.S. History:
  • The Renaissance through the Age of Napoleon
  • Ancient Civilizations -- From Prehistoric Times to the Central and South American Empires

• Programs on American Literature
  • A Matrix of American Literary Voices, Part One (Colonial Era through the 19th Century)
  • A Matrix of American Literary Voices, Part Two (Origins of Modern American Poetry to Post-Modern Writing)

• Programs on British Literature, starting with:
  • From Beowulf to Virginia Woolf

"Based on our success, we are making Beyond Books programs available immediately free of charge for this school year -- to high schools and middle schools with Internet access," said Cassano. In return for free access and support to teachers and students using its programs during the current school year, Beyond Books will ask schools to serve as demonstration facilities for other schools. Schools will be asked to permit Beyond Books to survey teachers and students on the educational effectiveness of its programs, provide feedback on strengths and recommended improvements, and allow voluntary posting on the site of Beyond Books-related lesson plans developed by the participating schools' teachers for use by other teachers.

In the future, schools will be able to subscribe to Beyond Books based on the number of programs a school uses and the number of students studying specific subjects. Teachers and students will be able to access their Beyond Books programs by password anywhere in the world where they have Internet access. "Once schools, teachers and students have the opportunity to use Beyond Books in their classrooms, they will want to continue to have access, and we can make that happen very cost effectively," said Cassano. For more information, e-mail Cassano at jsc@newforum.com.

New Forum Publishers Inc., based in Ardmore, Pa., was founded in 1998 as a content originator and aggregator of online educational information. New Forum is dedicated to exploring the full potential of the Internet for educational uses, providing an advertising-free, content-rich, course-relevant resource for teachers and students. The Beyond Books demonstration site can be accessed at http://www.newforum.com.