FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SD TIMES BRINGS IMMEDIACY TO THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MARKET

The First "Newspaper Of Record" for the Software-Development Industry Fills A Huge Hole in the Market: News And Analysis

Oyster Bay, N.Y., October 7, 1999 - BZ Media's SD Times, the software development industry's first and only newspaper-of-record, will be providing the news, analysis and vital information needed to help large enterprises manage their increasingly interrelated software- and applications-development activities. Long served by monthly technical programming journals, while rarely touched by the broad-based IT newsweeklies, the software development industry is the only significant segment of the computer market without an industry voice.

"It's difficult for corporate IT departments to keep up with all the changes in the software-development market," says Alan Zeichick, editor-in-chief of SD Times. "But that's exactly what software development managers charged with overseeing multiple development projects need to do. Projects are bigger and more code is being written than ever before. When every project plan is executed in a minefield of competing standards, products, technologies, platforms and vendor initiatives, the ability to make the right choices becomes crucial to success - but in order to make good decisions, managers need accurate and timely information. That's why SD Times will provide the hard news, and the analysis of that news, that software development managers can't get anyplace else."

SD Times will debut in February 2000, as a twice-per-month newspaper for software development managers. SD Times will be published in the common news-tabloid format of 10 5/8 x 13 inches, with a first-year circulation of 40,000 corporate software- and application-development managers. The one-time black-and-white full-tabloid page rate will be $4,995, but a variety of innovative discount and charter-rate programs will allow most advertisers to reach this crucial target audience for under $4,000.

"No publication has ever attempted to serve the software development managers' need for news and analysis," says Ted Bahr, publisher of SD Times and president of BZ Media. "More than 40 monthly technical journals help working programmers write Java servlets and review Linux device-driver kits; they're not focused on providing news or analysis. The IT newsweeklies are more concerned with servers and routers than with software development issues. That leaves a huge hole in the market - nobody's providing the wide-angle view on the issues specifically affecting software development managers. Until now. Beginning February 2000, SD Times will serve the key software-development decision-makers who need to know what's happening and why."