January 23, 2004

By: Dana Wells
Website: http://www.1st-in-toys.com

Nationalgeographic.com’s Award-Winning Content and E-commerce Offerings to be Featured Across America Online

National Geographic today announced a multi-year cross promotional agreement with America Online that will distribute and integrate Nationalgeographic.com’s popular and award-winning content to more than 33 million AOL and Netscape users and will promote America Online in National Geographic’s popular magazine titles.

Under the agreement, National Geographic will have a major presence across the AOL service, appearing in several channels including Research and Learn, Travel, News, and Kids Only. Nationalgeographic.com’s content will also be showcased on Netscape’s Research and Learn, and Travel channels. With this agreement, Nationalgeographic.com will deliver adventure and exploration to new audiences through interactive content in the areas of travel, photography, maps and geography, animals and nature, kids, and news.

This expanded reach will bolster National Geographic’s already diverse and rich cross-platform advertising offerings. National Geographic will be featured on Shop@AOL, including offers for National Geographic’s line of maps, specialty gifts, CD-ROMs, educational toys, travel accessories, subscriptions to its three magazines and memberships in National Geographic Society, one of the benefits of which is the National Geographic magazine.

AOL will receive promotional opportunities across many of the National Geographic’s media properties including AOL Keywords appearing on the covers of National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Adventure, National Geographic World, and on-air promotions on the National Geographic Channel. Recently launched in the U.S., the National Geographic Channel is now seen in 134 countries in 21 languages, reaching nearly 120 million households.

This is a major first step in what will be a substantial and broad-reaching relationship in the years to come, said Mitchell Praver, President of Nationalgeographic.com. Nationalgeographic.com will help meet the needs of AOL’s users across multiple services, allowing them to take advantage of National Geographic’s vast offerings at their convenience.

Geographic’s unique content will be a great resource for AOL members, said Jonathan Sacks, President of AOL. People of all ages have benefited from National Geographic’s award-winning world coverage of environmental and cultural themes. We are thrilled to give our members access to National Geographic’s innovative educational information at the click of a mouse.

Nationalgeographic.com launched the National Geographic Society into cyberspace and currently averages more than 25 million page views per month. The site has been honored with virtually every key industry award including, most recently, the Fifth Annual Webby Award and People’s Voice Award for Best Education Web site. These awards add to an impressive list of other top industry awards received by the site this year including a 2000 International Web Page Award and Best of Show in the 2000 Omni Intermedia Awards. Nationalgeographic.com has also received Best of the Web accolades from various media outlets.

About The Author:

Dana Wells is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-toys.com.  Find all the toys you wish you had as a kid. Fun and educational toys found here.