Topix Using Powerful New Browser Add-On to Increase Retention and Customer Acquisition

Company Expands Community Marketing Program with a Powerful New Conduit to their Localized News Feeds

November 03, 2009 — PALO ALTO, Calif., November 3, 2009 – Topix, the largest news community on the web, today announced the availability of the Topix community conduit. Built on the Conduit platform, the Topix browser add-on is a powerful application that delivers personalized news for users directly in the browser and improves user retention for the company. Topix will also take advantage of the Conduit Marketplace to distribute their news component to the Conduit Network of 200,000 web publishers and 60 million users.

Topix aggregates news from thousands of sources and creates topically driven news web pages for local news, public companies, industry verticals, celebrities and musicians, sports teams, personalities, and more. The new conduit allows the Topix community to read news from any city or zip code in the U.S., view and write comments, and interact with other readers, from anywhere on the web directly from their browser.

Topix is a “community of communities” that not only delivers the news, but also encourages readers to share their ideas and opinions with others. Topix users form communities by geographic and topic interests and the new conduit makes in even simpler for them to participate. With convenient access to the local news feeds right in the browser, Topix expects that users will be more engaged and spend more time on the site.

“What makes Topix special is not only the depth and breadth of our localized news, but also that we enable readers to share their thoughts with people in their geographic communities and who share their interests,” said Dave Galvan, vice president, business development and sales, Topix. “Our new conduit is a community-building tool that will help us engage readers and a social tool that enables their participation. Conduit has given us a great new deployment method and offers a big upside for our business model.”

Topix also chose Conduit for help with acquiring new customers. Using the Conduit Marketplace, Topix can distribute their popular localized news feed to the Conduit Network of more than 200,000 web publishers and 60 million users. “The Topix local news component is an excellent addition to the Conduit Marketplace that will be extremely popular with web publishers and end-users alike,” said Adam Boyden, president of Conduit. “The combination of Topix and Conduit’s technologies is powerful – no other site can offer aggregated local news like Topix and no other company has the distribution power of Conduit. Together, the potential reach and community building aspects of this partnership is staggering.”

To learn more about how Conduit can help you measurably increase retention and acquire new customers, go to www.conduit.com.

About Topix

Topix is the leading news community on the Web, connecting people to the information and discussions that matter to them in every U.S. town and city. A Top 10 online newspaper destination (comScore, September 2009), the company links news from 50,000 sources to 360,000 lively user-generated forums. Topix also works with the nation’s major media companies to grow and engage their online audiences through forums, publishing platforms and RSS feeds.

Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Topix LLC is a privately held company with investment from Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) and Tribune Company. For more, visit www.topix.com.

About Conduit

Conduit enables web publishers to distribute their offerings directly and through its global network of more than 200,000 publishers and their 60 million users. Conduit is the inventor of the SaaS platform that allows web publishers to create and distribute their content and products on a custom community toolbar using all the leading operating systems and Internet browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. The free, powerful Conduit platform has earned the prestigious TRUSTe Trusted Download certification. With the Conduit Open™ initiative, launched in 2009, Conduit is creating new distribution opportunities by simplifying the sharing of content and applications via community toolbars across the World Wide Web. The platform has been adopted by major brands such as Fox News, Habbo, iWin, Major League Baseball, NHL teams, Softonic, TechCrunch, and Travelocity, as well as thousands of small and medium organizations in 120 countries around the globe. If you want to Conduit Your Site, visit: www.conduit.com.

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Press Contact:
Dayna Verstegen
Conduit
+1.650.340.1550 #101
dayna@conduit.com