DOLAN MEDIA TO SELL ITS PUBLIC RECORDS BUSINESS TO LEXISNEXIS

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, June 26, 2003   Dolan Media Company said today it agreed to sell its nationwide public records business to LexisNexis, a unit of Reed Elsevier Group plc.

The transaction is subject to approval by Dolan Media shareholders and also to approval by federal officials under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.  Boards of directors of both companies have approved the deal.  Closing is expected later this summer.

Purchase price and terms were not disclosed.

The transaction was announced jointly by James P. Dolan, president and chief executive of Dolan Media, and Bill Pardue, president and chief executive of LexisNexis’ Corporate and Federal Markets unit.

The Dolan operations being acquired include Dolan Information Center, U.S. Corporate Services LLC, and Clickdata.com, Inc.  Those units gather and sell to the credit and marketing industries such public records as bankruptcies, liens, court judgments and eviction notices.  Collectively they comprise the largest credit-related public records gathering business in North America, specializing in large scale and rapid gathering of public records from thousands of courthouses across the U.S.

Dolan Media’s newspaper and teleservices divisions were not affected by the transaction.

Dolan said he proceeded with the deal, which began with an unsolicited approach from LexisNexis, after extended analysis led him to conclude that the transaction would be good for customers as well as employees.  “LexisNexis has enormous resources and a strategy that is very compatible with our own,” Dolan said, adding, “I expect them to take the business to the next level of service and technology.”

Pardue pointed out that government and financial and insurance industries have growing needs for fraud mitigation and identity verification.  “Dolan’s expertise and strong brands complement LexisNexis’ broad public records content, industry-focused solutions and risk scoring technology,” Pardue said.

The Dolan units affected by the transaction are:
• Dolan Information, based in Minneapolis, which gathers public records nationwide, databases them in its Oklahoma City offices, delivers them electronically to a broad range of credit and finance customers, and provides data-processing and value-added services to support risk management and credit assessment.  Its premier brands include Banko, the nation’s leading bankruptcy database, and Acollaid, a data verification service.  Dolan Information’s customers include the nation’s largest banks, most credit bureaus and many large credit-granting merchants.
• U.S. Corporate Services, St. Paul, MN, which files and searches for Uniform Commercial Code financing statements nationwide. Its primary customers are lenders and various types of finance companies which must register or investigate claims placed against assets for collateral purposes.
• Clickdata.com, Golden, CO, which aggregates and sells data and value-added products and services to the marketing industry.  Clickdata resells content from hundreds of third parties as well as much of Dolan Information’s public records material.  Its premier brands include Clickdata Direct and TopList.

The Dolan units employ 200 and use several hundred contractors across the country.  The acquired companies are expected to operate under the name LexisNexis Public Records Services.

Pardue said the newly acquired units would become part of his company’s Risk Management Group, which also includes RiskWise and PeopleWise.

He said RiskWise helps telecommunications, retail, Internet, insurance and financial companies to control credit and fraud loss, acquire more customers profitably, and to better communicate with customers.  PeopleWise conducts pre-employment screening and background checks.

Pardue said the Risk Management Group, prior to the pending transaction, employs more than 400 in Miamisburg, OH, headquarters and in St. Cloud, MN.

Closely held Dolan Media, based in Minneapolis, is a leading provider of highly targeted, specialized business information products and services.  It operates daily and weekly business newspapers, including court and commercial newspapers and business journals, in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN; Milwaukee, WI; Baltimore, MD; Portland, OR; Vancouver, WA; Boise, ID; Colorado Springs and Pueblo, CO; Oklahoma City, OK; New Orleans, LA; Rochester and Ronkonkoma, NY; St. Louis and Kansas City, MO; and Norfolk, VA.

Dolan’s Greene & Associates telemarketing unit is a leading business-to-business teleservices company based in Lake Forest, IL, with call centers in Iowa.

LexisNexis is a global leader in comprehensive and authoritative legal, news and business information and tailored applications.  Its parent, Reed Elsevier Group plc, based in London, does business in 100 countries with 13,000 employees.  In addition to LexisNexis, its companies include such legal publishers as Martindale-Hubbell, Matthew Bender, Butterworths, Les Editions du Juris-Classeur, Abeledo Perrot and Orac.

The van Tulleken Company advised Dolan Media