LOS ANGELES, Calif. - March 18, 2005 - Shoom Inc. announced today that it was recently named the electronic tearsheets vendor to Ottaway Newspapers Inc. (ONI), the community newspaper subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company. ONI chose Shoom and the eTearSheets service following a test at its Seacoast Media Group location at Portsmouth, N.H.

According to Jim Maxwell, ONI’s corporate advertising marketing director, both ONI corporate and Seacoast conducted parallel due diligence and analyses of four electronic tearsheet vendors prior to selecting Shoom for the test. The time span between initial presentation and final decision was one year.

Shoom eTearSheets is a Web-based service that delivers keyword-searchable thumbnail images of newspaper pages on publication day. Shoom’s was the first truly hosted proof-of-publication system and requires no capital investment for full implementation. eTearSheets integrates seamlessly into a publisher’s current workflow to capture PDF pages and ad metadata, create database links to ads, and send e-mails to advertisers containing links to their ad pages in one or more publications. Advertisers need only have Internet access with a standard browser.

“Initially, we chose to test Shoom eTearSheets because it is a long-established brand that has credibility with our major advertisers and a significant number of other publishers,” said Maxwell. “Our Seacoast experience validated our decision. Shoom’s technical support was vital in making the transition as smooth as possible. Seacoast converted nearly 100 percent of its advertisers to electronic tearsheets within 90 days. The elimination of paper tearsheets pays for the online service in labor that is now applied to other work. Seacoast also realized more than 100 percent of the forecast ROI savings for its electronic tearsheet conversion in just a few months.

“Shoom also helped us develop a best-practices model, based on its experience with many publishers, that will simplify and accelerate the rollout process to our other newspapers,” Maxwell continued. “The immediate impact of the online service should be from expense savings. Other significant value we expect is improved customer service through faster tearsheet delivery and the ability to resolve billing and proof-of-publication issues with advertisers quickly.”

Mike Lynch, Shoom’s executive vice president and general manager, said, “We appreciate ONI taking the time to thoroughly examine and evaluate all options available to them, both internal and external. We had confidence in both our EasySuite of ad-fulfillment services and our technical support and believed that, given the opportunity, we would be the vendor of choice. Jim Maxwell and Seacoast’s Controller Tom Davis did their research before selecting Shoom and then completely embraced the concept, as well as the technology. We couldn’t have asked for better partners. This was and is a real team effort. We are all anxious to complete our rollout of Shoom’s eInvoices service that delivers statements over the Internet, where the ROI is even greater.”

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Shoom Inc. and its Ad Express subsidiary develop and market Web-based solutions for publishers and advertisers. The company's team of marketing professionals, database developers, and software engineers combines its skills with proprietary development tools and modules to build infrastructure software integrated with Web backend systems. Shoom’s EasySuite of ad-fulfillment services includes eAd Delivery, eProofs, eTearSheets, ePaper, eInvoices, eClaims, and ePayments. These seven products dovetail to provide one of the fastest, most reliable and sophisticated online solutions available. A publication joining the Shoom online network immediately gains visibility with and access by tens of thousands of advertisers and ad agencies. Both publishers and advertisers are able to perform multi-paper and multi-market searches across millions of pages from many newspapers throughout North America. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.shoom.com or contact us at sales@shoom.com or 800-446-6646.

Ottaway Newspapers Inc. (ONI) is the community newspaper subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company. ONI publishes 15 daily and 18 weekly newspapers, and 20 other publications in nine states, along with Internet operations linked to the daily papers at all sites. ONI newspapers have daily circulation of 436,644 — reaching 1.3 million readers — and Sunday circulation of 488,154 — reaching 1.4 million readers. The parent company, Dow Jones, publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron’s, the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Indexes, and MarketWatch. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva, with Hearst of SmartMoney, and with NBC Universal of the CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and operates The Wall Street Journal Radio Network in the U.S.

Seacoast Media Group is a division of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. (ONI). The company publishes seven newspapers in Seacoast New Hampshire and Southern Maine – The Portsmouth Herald, The Hampton Union, The Exeter News-Letter, The Dover Community News, The Rockingham News, The York County Coast Star, and The York Weekly – with a total circulation of 65,723 reaching 170,000 readers. Visit Seacoast at its Web site www.seacoastonline.com.