Gather.com Brings Blogging to the Mainstream and Compensates Users for Participation; New Media Model Shakes Old Media Foundation

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 14, 2005--Gather.com(TM), the place to share and find the best user-generated content online, today announced the public launch of its next generation blogging platform. Gather.com brings bloggers, writers, individual contributors and readers together under a single, organized platform that prioritizes the best of what has been written on topics from politics and poetry to Tuscany and tiramisu.

"User-driven media today is similar to where user-driven retail was before eBay. With thousands of disconnected, individual shops, it was hard to find the stuff you wanted; if you found it, you didn't know if you could trust it; and if you decided you could trust it, you couldn't comparison shop," said Gather.com's founder and CEO Tom Gerace. "The blogosphere suffers from these same challenges. What eBay did for user-driven retail, Gather.com does for content."

“I can see how people react to what I write, and then see what they have written, and learn from that what interests them. Gather.com captures, in a very appealing and sensible way, the free spirit and fun that once made the entire internet so attractive to people.”

On Gather.com's platform, members organize content by topic, quality, popularity, and recency. Using Gather.com, readers can easily find the best of the content on topics interesting to them. In this way, Gather.com brings audiences to writers and connects readers around their shared passions. Unlike standalone blogs, where publishers often go unnoticed by potential viewers, contributors to Gather.com share their content with an established readership.

Gather.com members have user-specific, individual URLs for their space (example: tom.gather.com for CEO Tom Gerace). Members' personalized "namespaces" point friends, family, colleagues, and other current readers directly to their content, comments, profile, and connections.

"Gather.com offers a much closer and quicker introduction to the individuality of its users than any other internet site I know of," said Michael Middleton, magnumoafus.gather.com, of Summit, N.J. "I can see how people react to what I write, and then see what they have written, and learn from that what interests them. Gather.com captures, in a very appealing and sensible way, the free spirit and fun that once made the entire internet so attractive to people."

The old media business model is in decline. As the Associated Press reported on November 7, 2005, "the average weekday circulation at U.S. newspapers fell 2.6 percent during the six month-period ending in September in the latest sign of trouble in the newspaper business."

Prior to today's public launch, user-driven media did not have a clearly articulated business model. The best writers online had difficulty acquiring a significant audience, demonstrating credibility to that audience, and monetizing that audience. Gather.com brings an established audience to today's writers. Gather.com's community ratings establish credibility for them. Gather.com's integrated advertising and rewards systems compensate them, based on the quality and popularity of their work.

Membership on Gather.com is free. To become a member of Gather.com, or for more information on the company, visit www.gather.com.

About Gather

Gather.com (www.gather.com) is the space for the public radio crowd to share their passions and perspectives, or "beat" online. Gather.com members are rewarded for their participation with Gather Points(TM), or even cash for top contributors. Gather.com is led by an all-star team of industry veterans with extensive experience in building highly successful, Internet-based companies and creating relevant content. The Gather.com site was named the winner of the Media/Portal category in the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX), 2005 annual awards - the largest awards competition in the country that recognizes achievements in the development and implementation of interactive technologies. Gather.com is a privately held, privately funded company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.gather.com or call [phone], x1010.

Gather, Gather.com, and Gather Points are trademarks of Gather Inc.