United Online Launches MemoryLane.com: The Largest Archive of Nostalgic Content on the Internet


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Classmates Is Now a Part of the New Memory Lane Website

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- United Online, Inc. (Nasdaq: UNTD) has launched MemoryLane.com™, the largest archive of nostalgic content on the Internet. This groundbreaking new website allows visitors to relive the past through 60 years of Americana and over 100 million pieces of content dating from 1940 through 1999. Visitors can search the site for a specific type of content or choose any year or decade from the 1940s through the 1990s to experience the sights, sounds and memories of that era. In connection with the launch, the name of United Online's subsidiary Classmates Online, Inc. has been changed to Memory Lane, Inc.

MemoryLane.com's growing collection includes vintage magazines, historic newsreels, classic sports highlights, movie trailers, song samples and cover art from memorable albums, timeless photos, and the most extensive catalog of digitized high school yearbooks online. Classmates, which launched in 1995 as one of the first social networking websites, will be a part of Memory Lane™.

"MemoryLane.com provides a completely new and unique nostalgic experience," said Mark R. Goldston, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of United Online. "With one click, visitors to the site can travel back in time to any year between 1940 and 1999 and immerse themselves in the sights and sounds that made that year memorable and unique. Visitors can view video of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 27 in 1953, John F. Kennedy's 1961 inauguration speech, the Miracle Mets winning the championship in 1969, and the Apollo 11 astronauts walking on the moon. Additionally, visitors can watch a young Frank Sinatra in concert in the 1940s, the Beatles' arrival in America in 1964, return to 1969 and experience Woodstock, and watch the original trailers for movies such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Godfather, and Saturday Night Fever. After watching the movie trailers or listening to clips from the MemoryLane.com music collection, visitors can buy a DVD/CD copy for themselves through a single-click link to Amazon.com. While Classmates continues as a place where 57 million people can reconnect with friends from their past at more than 220,000 grade schools, high schools and colleges, Memory Lane now lets them also reconnect with events, images and popular culture from the past as well."

In the past six months, Memory Lane has amassed a vast amount of nostalgic content, much of which is not available anywhere else on the Web, including:

  • Vintage magazines - a unique online collection of iconic magazines that is available exclusively at MemoryLane.com. Every page of every issue of the Saturday Evening Post, LOOK, LIFE and SPORT published between the 1940s and 1990s is available for viewing on the site, with more magazines on the way.
  • Historic newsreels - some of the best classic newsreels from the 1940s through the 1960s. These short news updates were screened in movie theaters before the start of a film and were a primary source of news and current affairs for the American public prior to the proliferation of TV news.
  • Timeless movies - clips and trailers for thousands of classic movies. MemoryLane.com also gives visitors the ability to buy DVD copies of those movies through Amazon.com.
  • Memorable music — music clips from songs from every decade from the 1940s through the 1990s. In addition to listening, visitors can scan album art and read liner notes from those classic albums and buy CD copies of those albums through Amazon.com.
  • Classic moments from sports - an amazing collection of sports documentaries, video clips and images along with art and editorial from SPORT magazine.
  • Historic photographs - thousands of high resolution images depicting the fashion, sports, personalities, and events that made each year, decade and era unique.
  • High school yearbooks - the largest online collection of digitized high school yearbooks, consisting of more than 70,000 volumes covering 30 million people, including a variety of celebrities, with more being added to the archive each week. Visitors can purchase reprint copies of most yearbooks through Amazon.com.

Plans are in the works to add classic TV commercials, unique video content and digital copies of newspapers and to give visitors new and fun ways to interact with this content, including tagging it and sharing it through social media sites. While visitors can currently purchase nostalgic music, movies, posters, and reprints of high school yearbooks, Memory Lane is working to enable them to purchase other types of nostalgic memorabilia through the site as well.

"Our goal is to be the premier U.S. website for people to access, acquire, interact with and share nostalgic content," said Goldston. "Memory Lane is the one website dedicated to preserving the major events in history in a fun, easy-to-use format that lets visitors pilot their very own Internet time machine."

MemoryLane.com offers both free and premium content. While a significant amount of free content and previews of premium content can be viewed by any visitor to the site, a 24-hour, one-month or multi-month All-Access Pass is required to view the premium content collections in their entirety and in full-size. In addition, visitors can view individual magazines and premium videos for a nominal fee.

In addition to being able to access the traditional Classmates features, all existing 57 million Classmates members are now able to also browse through Memory Lane's vast archive of nostalgic content. Classmates Gold members have been upgraded to All-Access Passes at no additional charge, granting them unlimited access to the entire Memory Lane site, including its premium content collections.

About Memory Lane (R)

Memory Lane, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, is a premier provider of nostalgic content from the years 1940 through 1999. Visitors can explore a broad range of content on http://www.memorylane.com that includes vintage magazines, historic video newsreels, classic sports highlights, movie trailers, cover art and song samples from memorable albums, timeless photos, and the largest collection of high school yearbooks online. For more information about Memory Lane, please visit http://www.memorylane.com. For more information about United Online, please visit http://www.untd.com/index.html

Note to Editors: Memory Lane, MemoryLane.com, Classmates and United Online are trademarks or registered trademarks of United Online, Inc. or its subsidiaries. The names of any other companies, products and services used herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Cautionary Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the planned initiatives for the Memory Lane website, including, without limitation, the proposed addition to the website of additional types and quantities of nostalgic content and products and new ways of interacting with such content; the anticipated role, functionality and benefits to visitors of the website; and pricing and planned additional revenue streams. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events, performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, performance and results to differ materially from those described in this release. Potential factors that could affect Memory Lane's ability to perform and consequently the business, financial condition and results of operations of Memory Lane and United Online, Inc. include, without limitation, that the expected or planned implementation of additional nostalgic content, products and functionality to the Memory Lane website might be delayed or limited, might not ultimately be implemented, or if implemented, might not be commercially successful; that consumers or advertisers might not utilize the Memory Lane website as expected or might prefer a third party's content, products or services; technological issues and other problems associated with Memory Lane's or a third-party provider's products, services, operations, systems and technologies; changes in consumer demand, tastes and preferences; that the anticipated benefits to Memory Lane and United Online, Inc. might not be realized; unanticipated events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof; and other factors that may cause actual events, performance and results to differ materially from those predicted as described in United Online, Inc.'s annual and quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (http://www.sec.gov), including, without limitation, information under the captions "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Risk Factors."

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United Online, Inc.
Scott Matulis, 818-287-3388
smatulis@corp.untd.com

Source: United Online, Inc.

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