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Scripps Networks deepens user-generated content capabilities with the acquisition of Incando

Aug. 9, 2007
 

Knoxville, Tenn. (August 8, 2007) – Scripps Networks, whose Web properties are among the top-rated lifestyle content providers on the Internet, took another step to solidify its leadership position in the interactive space with the acquisition of Incando Corporation, its second new media purchase in less than a month.

Incando is known for its personal media sharing service Pickle.com and the user-generated content management platform Powered by Pickle. Based on proprietary software, Incando's Web2.0 technology enables speedy uploads of photos and videos from computers, mobile phones or digital cameras to any Web site and will enhance the user-centric, social media and personalization functionality around Scripps Networks' lifestyle content.

A division of The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP), Scripps Networks develops some of the most relevant content available on television, the Internet and satellite radio, in books and magazines, and on today's emerging media platforms. Its leading brands – HGTV and Food Network – are among the most popular networks on television, while DIY Network, FINE LIVING TV Network and Great American Country all rank among the fastest growing emerging networks on cable. Online, HGTV.com and DIYnetwork.com rank No. 1 and No. 2 respectively among content providers on the Web in the Home & Garden category, while FoodNetwork.com is the top-rated content provider on the web in the Food & Cooking category, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

Earlier this month, Scripps Networks added Recipezaar.com to its online properties. Recipezaar is a leading user-generated recipe and community site featuring more than 230,000 recipes.

"We are committed to our strategy of owning the food, shelter and lifestyle categories online as well as on air," said John Lansing, president of Scripps Networks. "With the acquisition of Incando, we now have the back-end tools to engage consumers, viewers, and marketers in a multi-branded, multimedia online universe with compelling, personalized experiences."

With more than 15 million unique visitors per month, the Scripps Networks' Web properties are not only extensions of Scripps Networks' leading lifestyle brands, but also leading destinations for original broadband programming and powerful interactive tools. Within the next few years, Scripps Networks expects as much as 50 percent of its online content to be co-created by its users.

"It's becoming clear that consumers have an appetite for both the professional guidance they have come to rely on from our branded Web sites as well as the insights and sensibilities they can get from the user-generated experience," said Deanna Brown, president of Scripps Networks Interactive Group. "User-generated content is the perfect complement to the authoritative resources currently provided by our brands and will allow us to broaden and deepen our relationship with audiences through open, two-way conversations centered around content, community and commerce opportunities in the food, home and living categories."

Ron Feinbaum, executive vice president of new business development for Scripps Networks, negotiated the deal with Incando as one of several acquisitions the multimedia company is considering.

Incando is a start-up founded in 2005 by John Funge and Leo Scott, who together previously built and sold an Internet consulting firm in the 1990s. They now will join the Scripps Networks Interactive Group, headed by Brown, to lead the integration of their technology across all of Scripps Networks' online properties.

"We've been impressed with Scripps Networks' strategy for the Internet," said Funge. "From the start with Incando, we've envisioned the incredibly interesting future that is fast arriving where rich media capture and sharing is pervasive and instant – letting everyone become a broadcaster.   Scripps Networks gets it and is poised to become an Internet powerhouse."

About Scripps Networks

In addition to its popular TV networks and Web sites, Scripps Networks has launched HGTV and Food Network in high definition and is aggressively developing its emerging media platforms for broadband and video on demand. Scripps Networks' brands collectively are available in more than 170 countries and territories on all seven continents. They also are distributed to more than 1,000 outlets on U.S. military bases and U.S. embassies around the world via the American Forces Radio and Television Service. For more on Scripps Networks visit http://www.scrippsnetworks.com/.

Headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Nashville and San Francisco, Scripps Networks is owned by The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP), a diverse media concern with interests in newspaper publishing, broadcast television, national television networks and interactive media. Scripps operates daily and community newspapers in 17 markets, 10 broadcast TV stations, Scripps Howard News Service, United Media, Shopzilla.com and USwitch. 

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Contact:  Cindy McConkey, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications at 865-560-3976 or [email protected]   or Jerilyn Bliss, Vice President of Corporate Communications  at 865-560-4181 or [email protected]