AllAfrica Global Media and COMTEX News Network, Inc. Extend Partnership

11 April 2001
Content from a Premium Partner
allAfrica.com
press release

Washington, DC — AllAfrica Global Media, a multi-media content service provider and the largest electronic distributor of African news and information worldwide, has signed a strategic agreement with COMTEX News Network, Inc., (OTC BB: CMTX) the leading full service, business-to-business infomediary, to increase the accessibility of Africa-related news online.

The two companies are creating an interface between COMTEX's innovative technology and the proprietary publishing software developed by AllAfrica. Based on XML – the markup language that facilitates industry-standard information exchange – the interface integrates AllAfrica's aggregation, sorting and categorization features into COMTEX's real-time news delivery technology.

The collaboration will give the 1100 information services and re-distributors, plus the millions of end users served by COMTEX News Network, more timely access to a broad range of Africa-related information produced and distributed by AllAfrica.

The companies also have agreed to work together to identify new global opportunities to sell high-quality information to financial, corporate, institutional and Internet clients interested in Africa's expanding markets.

AllAfrica operates the leading Africa web site, allafrica.com, and disseminates coverage from over 80 African media organizations, as well as reporting and analysis produced by the award-winning AllAfrica news team. The enterprise is built on the legacy of Africa News Service, a non-profit agency that pioneered news distribution from Africa with COMTEX five years ago.

"We welcome this expansion in our relationship with COMTEX," says AllAfrica Global Media's president Amadou Mahtar Ba. "COMTEX's worldwide reach helps AllAfrica fill the gap in coverage that other sources fail to provide, and this technological upgrade will improve the efficiency and timeliness of the delivery system."

"The development of strategic partnerships with leading information providers and distributors around the world is the key to successful penetration of the global information market," said Charlie Terry, president & CEO, COMTEX News Network Inc.  "Our partnership with AllAfrica, the foremost publisher of Africa news, leverages the COMTEX network and propels us into a leadership position in the international arena.  COMTEX will continue to win marketshare by partnering with the leaders who are shaping the industry and meeting its ever increasing demand for excellence."

About AllAfrica Global Media
AllAfrica, a private corporation with headquarters in Washington, D.C, and offices in Lagos, Dakar and Johannesburg, operates the premier Africa destination on the Internet, http://allAfrica.com, which logged over 7 million page views in March, its sixth month, and has a searchable archive with over 230,000 stories. More than 80 newspapers, magazines and news agencies in Africa supply content to AllAfrica and earn revenue from web site advertising, as well as royalties and license fees from the electronic distribution. The AllAfrica family includes two non-profit agencies: Africa News Service, which administers the Center for Africa and the Media at Duke University and the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Fellowship for African Women Journalists; and AfricaNet Trust, a broadcast production company whose programming will be webcast by allAfrica.com.

About COMTEX News Network, Inc.

COMTEX News Network, Inc. (OTC BB: CMTX), a full service, business-to-business infomediary, aggregates and redistributes diverse, real-time global news and information to resellers inthe Internet, Wall Street and corporate markets.  COMTEX' innovative technology gathers nearly 20,000 stories a day from over 10,000 diverse, global sources to create its subject-specific, value-added headline and vertical-market news products for distribution to over 1100 information services and re-distributorsthroughout the world, reaching millions of end users.  COMTEX' products include CustomWires®, Newsroom Enhanced Products, News Solutions, Publisher Full-Feeds and Processing Services.  In addition to All Africa, COMTEX select publishers include the Associated Press, Business Wire, Bridge Information Systems, Knight Ridder/Tribune, Newsbytes, ON24, PR Newswire, South American Business Information, the Sports Network, UPI and Xinhua.  Located in Alexandria, VA, COMTEX can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.comtexnews.net .

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