For Sixth Consecutive Year, IMA Managing the EPpy™ Awards Program

Parsippany, NJ (December 20, 2002) Interactive Media Associates, Inc. (IMA), a leading Internet eCommerce planning, development and marketing services firm, today announced that, for the sixth consecutive year, the company is producing and marketing the well-established EPpy™ Awards. This year, the EPpy™ Awards program has been newly expanded to now honor the best Internet services presented by media-affiliated companies, including newspapers, radio, and TV-Cable.

The EPpy™ Awards site can be accessed from the home pages of its two sponsors: Editor & Publisher, www.editorandpublisher.com, and Mediaweek, www.mediaweek.com. Entries will only be accepted via the Internet application, which features automatic credit card processing, e-mail confirmation, and a shopping cart to enable entering multiple categories in a single transaction.

The 2003 edition of The EPpy™ Awards marks the 8th consecutive year of this prestigious annual competition. But the awards program is larger than in any year past – with 29 awards to be given. And it has broadened its scope from its origins, as the interactive newspaper awards, to include the best Internet applications of all media sites, and particularly those offered by newspapers, radio companies, and TV-Cable concerns.

“The expansion of the Eppys to include radio and TV-Cable reflects the growth and maturity of the Internet, where all media sites compete for the time and loyalty of users,” said Matt Pollock, Director of Conferences and Events for Adweek Magazines.

In addition to the overall category awards, EPpys will be given to both large (more than 1 million unique monthly users) and small (fewer than 1 million unique monthly users) media-affiliated Web sites in the following categories:

• Best Internet News Service
• Best Internet Sports Service
• Best Internet Business Service
• Best Internet Entertainment Service
• Best Special Feature in a Internet Service – News or Event
• Best Special Feature in a Internet Service -- Enterprise
• Best Internet Community Service Effort
• Best Internet Overall Design of a Internet Service
• Best Use of Rich Media in an Internet Service
• Best Internet Classified Service
• Best Internet Shopping Service

Finally, the EPpy Awards will continue its tradition of honoring the best Web site sponsored by a College Newspaper.

The EPpy entry period is scheduled to close at midnight on Monday, Feb 3, 2003. Contest fees are $125 per entry except in the College category, where each entry is $75.

The judging of the EPpy Awards will be conducted by senior executives representing all the major media and with a special interest in Web services. Finalists in each of the categories will be announced in April, and the winners will be honored at the EPpy Awards Ceremony at the Interactive Media Conference in San Diego, May 7-9, 2003.

The 2002 EPpy™ Awards drew more than 250 nominations from nearly 100 U.S. and foreign newspapers, college and university newspapers, and companies competing for the only honor available to non-newspapers, the Best Online News Service by a non-Newspaper award.

In the expanded EPpy Awards category definitions, non-newspaper sites can compete in all of the content-specific categories, which promises to make the 2003 EPpy Awards the most competitive ever.

The 2002 EPpy™ Awards Finalists and Winners (*linked) were as follows: