VNU Business Media Europe Expands Reach of Its Online Portfolio with the European Roll out of the Inquirer

VNU Business Media Europe (BME) has widened the reach of itsEuropean online portfolio by launching local versions of its recentlyacquired Inquirer brand in six European territories.

Launched in April 2001 by Mike Magee, The Inquirer's mission hasbeen to get the truth behind the news in the IT market and has rapidlybuilt up a loyal worldwide audience of up to two million monthlyunique users.

Now, as part of the European family of online VNU assets, TheInquirer can spread its wings even further by offering users inFrance, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain and Belgium local languageversions of its popular and trustworthy content.

This is not the first time VNU has simultaneously introduced anonline brand into its European territories. Last year, VNU BMEsuccessfully launched the pioneering and immensely popular gadgetBlog, Gizmodo across its seven territories in Europe. In just a fewmonths, Gizmodo Europe is commanding a reach of over 700,000 uniqueusers a month.

Building on the success of Gizmodo, VNU has applied the same rollout strategy and cutting edge technical platform to duplicate thesuccess of Gizmodo. As well as translating UK content, Europeanwriters will add relevant local content to the site, carefullyfollowing the spirit and editorial voice of the UK original.

"The Inquirer has excellent reach into a high value audience ofknowledgeable and influential readers - a group that are notoriouslyhard to reach through mainstream publishing channels. After roundingout our UK online portfolio with The Inquirer that gives us reachwithin this high value B2B and Technology audience, we are looking atreplicating this same successful recipe to reach this similar audienceacross Europe," said Dominique Busso, CEO of VNUnet Europe.

Mike Magee, founder of The Inquirer, said: "From day one, thisdeal was a great fit for The Inquirer and for VNU. Now it is evenbetter with this European roll out that will allow us to furtherexpand our coverage significantly and give us the ability to share ourcommon resources and top reporting skills across Europe."

The European roll out of The Inquirer is part of VNU's ongoingtransformation strategy to evolve its business into a true cross-mediaorganisation. In addition to the UK market, VNU BME is conductingsimilar operations in Europe and has previously announced theacquisition of Silicon.fr, a leading IT B2B site in France, andTweakers.net, a popular IT technical and community focussed consumersite, earlier this year.

About The Inquirer

The Inquirer, www.theinquirer.net is a leading global web site forIT news and comment. With over two million unique users and coveragefrom around the world, it is a respected and popular must-read site.The editor of The Inquirer, Mike Magee, is also co-founder of theRegister.com. The Inquirer carries news, features, opinion pieces andreviews aimed at buyers, system integrators, consumers and industryplayers in the PC industry. In March 2005, a dedicated channel sectionwas launched to cover the indirect sales route to market and laterthat year the Inquirer launched Podcasts.

About VNU Business Media Europe (http://www.vnubme.com):

VNU Business Media Europe is one of the leading b2b publishingcompanies in Europe. Specialized in areas such as technology, business& finance, and recruitment, we deliver highly valuable information tothe business communities formed by our readers and visitors to ourexhibitions and websites. Through these cross-media informationplatforms we offer our clients focused and measurable solutions fortheir communication needs with leading business professionalsthroughout Europe. VNU BME is present in 7 wholly-owned operatingcompanies in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgiumand Spain. It has approximately 70 print titles, gained throughorganic growth and the acquisition of strong local publishers. It isNo. 1 or a strong No. 2 in each of its markets.

VNU BME has a leading online position in the IT World industry inEurope via its network of VNU.net sites that reach over 10 millionunique users per month. VNUnet is VNU's one-stop-shop to gatherinformation and news about trends, products and software in the ITworld, including solid analysis from VNU's leading print brands suchas Computing, Computable and Computeractive. VNU is constantlystriving to expand on this base with partnerships such as this.