Comedienne Margaret Cho To Host First NetGuide Awards

Bill Gates, Chris Hassett, Guy Kawasaki and Scott Zakarin are Finalists for Net Innovator Award

PRNewswire
MANHASSET, N.Y.
Feb 27, 1997

Award-winning, stand-up comedienne Margaret Cho, who stars in the upcoming blockbuster movie Face Off with John Travolta and Nicholas Cage, and is best known for her hit ABC sitcom All American Girl, will host the first NetGuide Awards on March 13, to be held at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles. The NetGuide Awards, sponsored by Legacy Software, will honor the most innovative and interesting Internet products and Web sites in the world. Additional sponsors include TotalNEWS, Epson and US Robotics.

There are 28 categories for NetGuide Award finalists, 10 of which are open for voting by Web surfers who log onto http://www.netguide.com/awards through February 28.

As of February 25, more than 11,000 voters submitted their votes for the People's Choice category. Among those vying for the "people's vote" are Net Innovators of the Year finalists Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, Chris Hassett, co-founder of PointCast, Guy Kawasaki, Apple Fellow and Macintosh evangelist, and Scott Zakarin, creator of The Spot. A jury of diverse Internet luminaries is judging an additional 18 categories including Sites Using Technology Best with finalists Apple, PointCast and BingoZone. (Please see http://www.netguide.com/awards for a complete listing of all finalists and judges).

"It's so exciting to reach out and interact with people over the Internet, which is why I'm personally such a Webhead," said Cho. "I'm honored to have been chosen to help pay tribute to the Net's best sites and products at the first NetGuide Awards."

"We're thrilled to have Margaret bring her comedic flair and enthusiasm for the Internet to our event," said Beth Haggerty, publishing director, CMP's Internet Media Group, which includes NetGuide Magazine and NetGuide Live. "The finalists chosen are the most innovative and interesting products and sites in cyberspace and deserve the attention and enthusiasm they are receiving."

Among the NetGuide Awards judges are Adam Curry, founding "veejay," MTV and founder, OnRamp online site focused on popular music; Ted Casablancas, online columnist and enfant terrible, E! Online (a service of E! Entertainment Television); Rick Damigella, World Wide Web correspondent for CNN Showbiz Today; Larry Magid, syndicated Los Angeles Times columnist and author (of The Little PC Book, a ground breaking introductory manual for PC novices); and Kenney Dale Johnson, drummer and vocalist with the Chris Isaak band.

Comedienne Cho has a way of disarming her audience, dispatching reconceptions and delivering punch lines that sting with wit and veracity. The San Francisco-born Cho, a second generation Korean-American, has taken her stand-up act on the road throughout the United States and Canada, making appearances at many of the nation's top comedy clubs. Cho, who recently received acclaim for her role in It's My Party, starring Eric Roberts, is perhaps best known for her ABC sitcom All American Girl, which focused on the generational and cultural conflicts between Cho and her traditional Korean family. Cho has starred in numerous other television and film projects including her very own, Cable-Ace nominated HBO special, Showtime's Red Shoe Diaries, and CBS' Golden Palace among others.

About the Sponsors:

Published by CMP Media Inc., NetGuide Magazine is the leading monthly magazine for users of the Internet and online services. Building off NetGuide Magazine's reputation for expert information and quality delivery, CMP launched the first true guide to the Internet, NetGuide Live (http://www.netguide.com/).

CMP Media Inc., now in its 26th year of uninterrupted growth, is the only provider of publishing, marketing and information services to reach the entire spectrum of the high-technology market -- the builders, sellers and users of technology. With sales of $418 million in 1996, CMP has marked a quarter century of success with an average growth of 20 percent. CMP Media is also the creator of First-TV (http://www.first-tv.com/), the Internet's first 24- hour TV/video network.

Legacy Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: LGCY), a Platinum sponsor of the first NetGuide Awards, creates consumer software products for the "edutainment" CD-ROM market(including the current hit, Emergency Room) and develops online activities and games for the rapidly expanding Internet arena. The company's proprietary Passport2 Participate Chat software is available to host events on the Passport2 Network, or can be licensed for use on other servers, as is being done with NetGuide Live. Recently, the company used Passport2 software to create a chat environment for the People's Choice Awards.

Additional sponsors include: TotalNEWS, the award winning directory of over 1,200 select news sources on the Net (http://totalnews.com/); U.S. Robotics, one of the world's leading suppliers of products and systems that provide access to information; and Epson, which offers an extensive array of image capture and image output products and a variety of component and electronic devices for the OEM market.

-0- 02/27/97

SOURCE: CMP Media Inc.

CONTACT: Denise Walpole of CMP Media Inc.'s NetGuide Live,
212-592-8476 or dwalpole(at)cmp.com; or Andrea Salkin,
asalkin(at)kappcomm.com, or Gayle Paston, gpaston(at)kappcomm.com, both of
KillerApp Communications, 213-938-7600