CINCINNATI, Ohio – The E. W. Scripps Company today filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission covering a proposed public offering of 6.3 million Class A Common shares, plus over-allotment options.The company will not receive proceeds from the sale.Of the shares to be sold, 3.5 million are owned by the Edward W. Scripps Trust, controlling shareholder of the company. The Scripps trust has advised the company that the decision to sell shares is in keeping with its long-term effort to diversify the trust’s assets. The trust’s most recent sale of Scripps Class A Common shares was in late 1993.The remaining 2.8 million shares to be sold are owned by the Jack R. Howard Trust, which was established by Jack R. Howard, a retired chief executive officer of the company. Mr. Howard died in March 1998.The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus.The company’s Class A Common shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SSP.” The proposed offering will be managed by Merrill Lynch.A registration statement relating to the Class A Common shares has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. The shares may not be sold and offers to buy may not be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective.This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, and there shall not be any sale of Class A Common shares in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state. A written prospectus may be obtained from the underwriters. The E. W. Scripps Company’s major operations include:· Daily newspapers in 20 markets;· Network-affiliated television stations in nine markets;· Two cable TV networks – Home & Garden Television (100 percent owned) and the Food Network (56 percent owned);· United Media, a worldwide licensing and syndication company whose characters include PEANUTS AND DILBERT;· Cinetel Productions, a leading producer of primarily non-fiction programming for the cable network industry.