Questia news release

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS:	
Ann Brimberry					
Andrea Hugg			
Questia Media, Inc.				
Public Relations	
abrimberry@questia.com				
andrea_hugg@richards.com		
									
Questia Arms Students Headed Back To School With World's Largest Online
Library

Questia's New Version 2.0 Nearly Doubles The Size of Its Collection

HOUSTON (August 15, 2001) - Headed back to school this month are 30
million web-savvy high school and college students looking for new ways to
succeed.  Many will look to the Internet to give them the academic edge
needed to excel in today's highly competitive scholastic environment.  
The wealth of information on the Internet has become both a blessing and a
curse for students.  Although the Internet can be a huge time saver,
finding credible information online is challenging.  Now Questia, the
world's largest online library of books, provides students with an easy
and powerful solution.

Today, Questia launches its version 2.0, which includes a collection of
more than 60,000 full-text titles - nearly double the size of its version
1.0 collection launched January 2001.  Version 2.0 also improves Questia's
tools, which enable users to personalize books by highlighting and making
notes in them and to write better papers by automatically creating
footnotes and bibliographies in various formats.  Since the January
launch, Questia has conducted extensive market research among student
subscribers and met with many professors and librarians.  The company has
used that feedback as well as the advice of its Corporate Advisory Council
to improve upon the Questia service.  The Council is composed of former
first lady Barbara Bush; Dr. Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie
Corporation; Dr. John Seely Brown, chief scientist of Xerox (NYSE: XRS);
Dr. Sidney Verba, Harvard University library director; and Dr. Clifford
Lynch, executive director of the Coalition for Networked Information. 

"We listened to our users and designed Version 2.0 with one objective in
mind - to exceed subscribers' expectations.  Every area of the site was
redesigned, from an entirely new user interface to simplifying the
registration process.  Additionally, all the tools and features are now
incorporated into three areas which are the most important functions of
the service -- search, read, and work," said Troy Williams, CEO and
founder of Questia Media, Inc. Questia's version 2.0 has the following new
features: 

� An increase in the library from 35,000 to more than 60,000
books and journal articles;  

� New tools for subscribers, including an automatic view of the recently
used books, a personal bookshelf for storing and retrieving favorite
books, and a customizable home page;

� Re-organization of tools and functions around the three main areas of
search, read, and work to improve the site's usability;

� Faster search and navigation between books and within books;

� America Online (NYSE: AOL) agreement that makes Questia available to all
AOL subscribers on its Research and Learn Channel, as well as Netscape.
AOL Keyword: Questia.

"We developed the Questia service to meet a tremendous student need -
access to quality academic content online, 24 hours a day, seven days a
week.  When I was in college, the library was often closed when I wanted
to use it.  And even when it was open, the books I needed were often
missing or checked-out.  Questia provides every student with a college
library in their room and no book is ever checked out," continued
Williams.  Besides student acceptance, faculty members also view the
Questia service as useful, both as a source for teaching materials and as
an effective anti-plagiarism tool.  Using the search function to look for
a phrase, professors can check a student's paper for material copied but
not cited. "Questia provides several benefits for teachers," said Dr.
Stanley Chodorow, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California,
San Diego and Questia Media's Vice President for Academic Affairs.  "It
makes it possible for students to spend more time delving into their topic
because the books and journals are never checked out or defaced.
Additionally, the tools encourage the honest use of scholarly material and
provide faculty with the means to uncover suspected plagiarism." 

The cost of accessing the entire Questia collection and utilizing the
research tools remains at $19.95 a month, and $149.95 annually.  Special
promotional pricing is offered through partners including America Online
(NYSE: AOL), Britannica.com, and The Princeton Review, Inc. (NASD: REVU)
website, Review.com.  

About Questia 

Founded in 1998, Questia Media, Inc., launched its revolutionary online
library with powerful search and writing tools created specifically to
help students write better papers faster in January 2001. Questia provides
unlimited access to the full-text of an extensive collection of books, as
well as a wide range of tools including highlighter, markup, automatic
footnotes and bibliography builder. For millions of students and
researchers, the QuestiaSM service will enable them to efficiently
research and compose papers at any time, from virtually every connected
corner of the world.  Based in Houston with offices in New York and Los
Angeles, Questia is delivering on the true promise of the Internet by
providing access to a wealth of human knowledge. Visit www.questia.com for
more information.

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