John Fairfax Holdings Limited
ACN 008 663 161

SYDNEY, SINGAPORE, March 15, 2000: John Fairfax Holdings Limited [ASX:FXJ] announced today that it has formed a joint venture with New York-based News Alert LLC. The JV company, called News Alert Asia-Pacific, will produce and service Financial and Business-to-Business web sites to enable them to publish customized news and market data throughout the Asia-Pacific region. As part of the deal, Fairfax has purchased a significant equity stake in News Alert LLC, a leading aggregator of real-time news and market data in the United States.

News Alert LLC is a major aggregator of financial news and market data from numerous sources and develops, customizes and hosts turnkey web solutions which any web site can easily integrate as its own News and Finance channel. News Alert serves a rapidly growing list of over 120 clients in the United States and Europe, including Dow Jones & Co., Datek Online, Waterhouse Securities, Charles Schwab International, Hoovers Inc., CBS Marketwatch, MetalSite and PaperExchange. Principal investors in News Alert LLC include Hollinger Digital, Mondadori.com, investors Howard and Edward Milstein, the Pivotal Group RAF NetVentures and New Media Capital Ventures.

News Alert Asia-Pacific will develop the business for the region. Fairfax Business Publications, the division of Fairfax that includes The Australian Financial Review, BRW and the Strategic Publishing Group, will lead the expansion of News Alert services and products throughout Asia. Fairfax Business Publications will also be a key client of News Alert Asia-Pacific through its fast growing website afr.com.au, Australia’s premier business and finance information site. Fairfax Business Publications also plans to make selected bundles of content available for wholesale distribution by News Alert Asia-Pacific.

Mr Fred Hilmer, CEO of Fairfax, said:

"This is a critical strategic content move for us in business news and information services and technology in Asia. Through our investment and alliance with News Alert, we are leveraging our leading position in Australia to become a major player throughout Asia Pacific in this key and growing market."

Mr Michael Gill, Publisher and Editor-in-chief of Fairfax Business Publications, said:

"Joining with News Alert, which is growing quickly and is profitable, gives us the capacity to build quickly in our region a contemporary, leading-edge model for business data. We are now a major player in business and finance news, services and technology in Asia - at precisely the moment the region’s recovery is taking hold. News Alert makes us a part of its global service. This deal reinforces our business plans to create news content for the Internet, and gives us the global distribution leverage to finance further content development. It will also significantly strengthen the position of afr.com.au, and enable us to provide a new range of services to business clients throughout the Asia-Pacific region."

Mr Gill said that the new venture would have at least three offices throughout the region, with the headquarters in Asia. Mr Gill added that the financial services sector, both commercial and online, would be a major client base for News Alert Asia-Pacific.

Mr Christophe Cremault, President of News Alert LLC, said:

"News Alert is extremely pleased to be entering the Asia Pacific region with a partner of Fairfax’s caliber. We intend to become a part of the region’s Internet infrastructure – enabling financial portals, online brokers, banks, insurance companies and investment funds, as well as business-to-business vertical marketplaces, to provide a rich offering of targeted content and market data to their users. The Asia Pacific region is bustling with Internet activity, and the need for the easy to use, easy to deploy financial and business content solutions that News Alert provides became too evident to ignore. So here we are, ready to partner with local content providers, ISPs, developers and other Application Service Providers to participate in and contribute to the growth of the Internet phenomenon in the region."

Terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

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For further information, please contact:

Mr Michael Gill, Fairfax Business Publications, (61-2) 9282 2717
Mr Christophe Cremault, News Alert LLC (1-212) 572 8382, ext 2776
ccremault@newsalert.com.

Note to editors

Fairfax Business Publications (FBP), an operating unit within John Fairfax Holdings Limited, is comprised of The Australian Financial Review (AFR) and BRW Media, which includes BRW, Personal Investor and Shares magazines. FBP also develops editorial products for the Internet. In November, 1999, Fairfax purchased the Strategic Publishing Group, whose titles include MIS Australia, MIS Asia, MIS NZ, MIS South Asia, CFO Australia, and Business Online (Singapore). The AFR also produces a nightly prime time business news program broadcast throughout Asia on pay television systems, The Australian Financial Review Market Wrap, with CNBC.

John Fairfax Holdings [ASX:FXJ] is Australia’s leading publishing group. Its mastheads include The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sun-Herald, and BRW. In addition, the company publishes financial and consumer magazines, and provides online and interactive services. In 1999, the company had revenues of over $1.1 billion. Fairfax, through f2, its wholly owned subsidiary for its online and interactive businesses, is Australia’s leading content provider on the Internet, with more than 1.8 million page views per day across a network of sites.

News Alert LLC is an industry-leading provider of financial news and information for business-focused Web sites. News Alert's goal is to become the premier content and applications resource for Web sites that provide financial news and market data worldwide and across multiple vertical industry segments. News Alert powers world-class Web sites with private labeled, targeted, real-time financial and business news, stock quotes, charts and other client-driven, customized applications.

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