NEW YORK and JACKSON, Wyo., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- CBS News and Data
Broadcasting Corporation (Nasdaq: DBCC), the nation's leading provider of
online financial and market information to the individual investor, have
joined forces to create CBS MarketWatch, it was announced today by Andrew
Heyward, president, CBS News; and Larry Kramer, vice president, News and
Sports, Data Broadcasting Corporation (DBC).
    CBS MarketWatch (cbs.marketwatch.com) will combine the resources of both
companies to build the premier Internet business information site in the world
for the individual investor, business professional and the general public.
    CBS will bring to the new product the full news gathering resources and
viewership of CBS News while also providing the sales, marketing and branding
support for the new Internet site.  DBC will provide the basic Internet
technology and financial reporting structure for CBS MarketWatch.  The
existing DBC website, which will form the backbone of the new service, was
rated this week a close second to Microsoft Investor as the best websites for
investors by "Barron's."  The magazine lauded the DBC site as "high in every
content area" and praised its "good, original news coverage."
    The new service, which is a 50-50 joint venture between the partners, will
offer stock prices, a broad range of business news and real-time financial
information and analysis at no charge.  CBS MarketWatch will provide people
who need real-time stock market numbers with that information on a
subscription basis.  The service will also be advertiser-supported, providing
a second revenue stream for the enterprise.
    "As we witnessed this week, every change on Wall Street affects Main
Street," said Heyward, "but just how that happens isn't always easily
explained in a two-minute report on the CBS EVENING NEWS.  CBS MarketWatch
gives us the ability to go a step beyond that by delivering important and
current business news to investors and viewers in a context that more fully
explains how it affects any one of them individually.  The service will also
allow us to extend the CBS News brand to new media outlets while providing the
ideal means for us to move into the online business arena."
    DBC's Larry Kramer, who has more than 20 years' experience as a journalist
and Internet pioneer, will serve as chief executive officer of CBS
MarketWatch.  "The number of people interested in the financial markets and
the news that moves those markets is growing rapidly," he said.  "This
partnership with CBS News will allow us to bring to consumers the kinds of
news and market data that until now had only been available to professionals
or active traders.  We believe that the depth and interactivity we can offer
on the Internet combined with the dramatic and visual presentation of
television news creates a powerful journalistic service."
    In addition to producing continuous feeds of financial information, timely
market intelligence, original reports on breaking news and hosted online
commentaries from top analysts, CBS MarketWatch will provide consumers with a
means of understanding exactly how the complex and ever-changing business
marketplace personally affects them.
    "For example," Kramer observed, "if Congress is considering a new tax
bill, a viewer could go to the CBS MarketWatch site, enter his or her salary
and be able to calculate how passage of the bill would affect his or her
income.  If CBS News reported a major corporate takeover, viewers could go to
CBS MarketWatch to see the details of the deal and the impact is could have on
individual stockholders, employees and customers of the companies involved.  A
story about the unemployment rate could be further explained by state-by-state
unemployment figures that could be listed in detail on the website."
    The service will also market, as an addition to its basic service, two
real-time financial data products: CBS MarketWatch RT, a browser-based product
delivering real-time quotes and information on request, and CBS MarketWatch
LIVE, an active-push software that delivers streaming real-time data similar
to that on screens found on traders' desks.
    "The CBS-DBC arrangement continues CBS's strategy of expanding its
interactive presence with partners who have a track record of success there,"
added Heyward.  "Earlier this year, we announced CBS SportsLine, which
immediately became the nation's premier online media service devoted
exclusively to sports information, entertainment and merchandise."
    Kramer holds a MBA degree from Harvard and has spent more than 20 years in
journalism.  He served as a financial reporter, metro editor, assistant to
executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee, and assistant managing editor at the
"Washington Post."  He began his journalism career as a reporter for the "San
Francisco Examiner" and later served as executive editor of that newspaper and
the "Trenton (NJ) Times."  Kramer was the founder, president and executive
editor of Data Sport, Inc., where he created SportTrax, a hand-held sports
information monitor, which was eventually sold to DBC in 1994.
    Data Broadcasting Corporation is America's leading provider of real-time
market data to the individual trader and investor.  The company delivers real-
time stock quotes, financial news and other time-sensitive market intelligence
into personal computers, laptop computers and portable hand-held receivers via
cable television, FM airwaves, digital broadcast satellite and the Internet to
more than 200,000 users.  Through its Capital Management Sciences division,
the company also is the leading provider of fixed income portfolio analytics
used for valuation and risk management purposes.

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