Phelps Promoted to President of Shopzilla; Davis Elevated to New Role as Chairman

Phelps Promoted to President of Shopzilla; Davis Elevated to New Role as Chairman

CINCINNATI, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- John Phelps, currently chief operating officer of Shopzilla, has been named president of the online comparison shopping service, which is the newest operating subsidiary of The E.W. Scripps Company.

Phelps succeeds Chuck Davis, who has been named chairman of Shopzilla. Davis, 45, was president and chief executive officer of Shopzilla when it was acquired by Scripps in June. He will serve in an advisory role and also will work with Scripps to explore business opportunities in rapidly growing interactive marketplaces.

Phelps, 37, joined Shopzilla in 1998 as one of its first employees and helped champion the company's transformation from research to online comparison shopping.

As chief operating officer, Phelps has been directly responsible for managing Shopzilla's day-to-day operations, including consumer Web site operations, consumer acquisition and marketing, and merchant sales and marketing. He also has overseen the company's corporate strategic planning and business development efforts.

"John Phelps is a thoughtful executive who has contributed immensely to Shopzilla's success at each stage in its development," said Kenneth W. Lowe, president and chief executive officer of Scripps. "He is thoroughly capable of providing the leadership required to enable Shopzilla to realize its full potential as an indispensable service for online consumers and merchants."

Referring to Davis' appointment, Lowe said, "Chuck is a seasoned executive who successfully guided Shopzilla through its rapid growth and the transaction with Scripps. His experience and insight will be very helpful to Scripps as we seek to build value through interactive media."

Davis joined Shopzilla in late 1999 after serving in senior management roles at The Walt Disney Company's Internet Group, TV Guide and Time Inc. He has a bachelor's degree from Brown University and a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.

Phelps graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in history and earned a master's degree in business administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His background includes investment banking at LaSalle Partners, and teaching and administration at Harvard-Westlake School, a college preparatory school in Los Angeles.

About Scripps

Scripps is a diverse media concern with interests in national lifestyle television networks, newspaper publishing, broadcast television, television retailing, interactive media and licensing and syndication. All of the company's media businesses provide content and advertising services via the Internet.

Scripps is organized into the following operating divisions.

Scripps Networks, including the company's growing portfolio of popular lifestyle television networks. Scripps Networks brands include Home & Garden Television, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living, Great American Country (GAC) and HGTVPro. Scripps Networks Web sites include FoodNetwork.com , HGTV.com , DIYnetwork.com , fineliving.com and gactv.com . Scripps Networks programming can be seen in 86 countries.

Scripps Newspapers, including daily and community newspapers in 19 markets and the Washington-based Scripps Media Center, home to the Scripps Howard News Service. Scripps newspapers include the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel and the Ventura County (Calif.) Star.

Scripps Television Station Group, including six ABC-affiliated stations, three NBC affiliates and one independent. Scripps operates broadcast television stations in Detroit; Cleveland; Cincinnati; Phoenix; Tampa; Baltimore; Kansas City, Mo.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Lawrence, Kan.

Shop At Home, the company's television retailing subsidiary, which markets a growing range of consumer goods directly to television viewers and visitors to the Shop at Home Web site, shopathometv.com . Shop at Home reaches about 53 million full-time equivalent U.S. households, including 5 million households via five Scripps-owned Shop at Home affiliated television stations.

Shopzilla, an online comparison shopping service with an index of more than 30 million products from about 55,000 stores. Shopzilla is powered by ShopRank, a proprietary algorithm that helps shoppers instantly find virtually any product for sale on the Web at the best price. Shopzilla also operates the BizRate consumer feedback network with more than 2.5 million members and about 1 million reviews per month.

United Media, a leading licensing and syndication company. United Media is the worldwide licensing and syndication home of Peanuts, Dilbert and about 150 other features and characters.

Source: The E. W. Scripps Company

CONTACT: Tim Stautberg, of The E. W. Scripps Company, +1-513-977-3826, stautberg@scripps.com

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