MERRIAM-WEBSTER, BRITANNICA TAP GREGORY BARLOW TO DRIVE ONLINE AD SALES

WSJ director joins reference publishers’ growing online business

SPRINGFIELD, MASS., August 17, 2009—To fuel the continued growth of their rapidly expanding Web businesses, reference publishers Merriam-Webster, Inc., and Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. have named digital-advertising industry veteran Gregory Barlow Vice President, Online Advertising.

Barlow will head the advertising sales group for all Merriam-Webster and Britannica Web sites, which include Merriam-Webster.com, WordCentral.com, LearnersDictionary.com, Britannica.com and Student.Britannica.com. Combined the sites reach more than 34 million unique monthly visitors.

Barlow was most recently a multimedia sales director for the Wall Street Journal, where he presided over one of their strongest-performing advertising sales teams. Before that he held positions with Time, Inc., Inc.com & FastCompany.com, and Money-Media, Inc.

"Greg is exactly the person we need at this point to take our online businesses to the next level," said John Morse, president of Merriam-Webster, Inc., a subsidiary of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "We've all been struck by his combination of solid industry experience and understanding, his great enthusiasm for new challenges, and his friendly manner."

Both Merriam-Webster and Britannica have been technological pioneers, moving beyond print to Internet, wireless, and handheld platforms and devices. Britannica published the first encyclopedia on the Internet in 1994 and has been primarily a digital publisher for many years. Merriam-Webster.com, launched in 1996, now receives more than 135 million monthly page views and is a top 100 Quantcast site. Advertising-supported Web publishing is an important and growing initiative for both companies.