Friends Reunited Press

PRESS RELEASE ~ 3rd December, 2009

FRIENDS REUNITED TO LAUNCH TRAVEL SERVICE WITH THOMAS COOK

Friends Reunited is to launch a co-branded travel service with Thomas Cook, enabling its 20.6 million members to search and book holidays directly through the social networking site.

The service, to go live later this week, will be given its own dedicated tab on the Friends Reunited homepage and will be supported through an email marketing campaign and online display advertising.

Craig Nayman, Commercial Director of Friends Reunited, said: “This partnership fits perfectly with what our members tell us they are interested in; they are already enthusiastically discussing their past trips, making holiday plans and sharing photos. After adding travel guide content to the site earlier in the year it seemed a natural step to enable users to book their next break too, without needing to leave the site.”

David Hilton, Deputy Director of eCommerce at Thomas Cook UK & Ireland, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Friends Reunited. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to display our broad online portfolio of product to a large online audience that has a clear passion for travel.”

Friends Reunited members will get access to all Thomas Cook holiday inventory and that of their agreed partners and will be protected by the usual fulfilment obligations and ABTA terms. The travel pages will provide a range of destination editorial and generic travel content, both in text and video format and will link through to the 570 different Travel Groups set up by Friends Reunited members.

~Ends~
NOTES TO THE EDITOR

About Friends Reunited
Friends Reunited is the original social network with 20.6 million members, of which 2.9 million were added in 2008. It was launched in 2000 as a back-bedroom hobby to put old school friends back in touch with each other and swiftly became a British media phenomenon. In 2005 Friends Reunited was acquired by ITV and in April 2008 dropped its subscription charge and evolved into an interactive social networking site for grown-ups. The Friends Reunited Group, includes Friends Reunited, Genes Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating. ITV announced on 6 August 2009 that it was selling the Group, subject to clearance by the competition authorities, to online innovation business brightsolid a subsidiary of DC Thomson.

For more information call 01883 717468 or email press@friendsreunited.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE ~ 24th November, 2009
Friends Reunited Announces Support for Missing People

The original social network, Friends Reunited announced today (date TBC) that it is to launch a new partnership with the charity Missing People.

Friends Reunited and the charity will develop dual branded events that highlight the partnership and which utilise both brands’ connection to ‘reuniting’ and ‘finding’ people.

In addition to a corporate gift this year, users of Friends Reunited, Genes Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating will be invited to support Missing People across existing communication channels.

Presenting a cheque to the charity this week, Andy Baker, MD of Friends Reunited, said: “Missing People do a truly fantastic job and we’re delighted to be working with the charity to help reunite families with missing loved ones. Connecting friends and family is central to what we do both on Friends Reunited and our family history site Genes Reunited, so we will be working closely with the charity to make the most of this natural link to help find more people.”

Details of the partnership’s first dual branded event are due to be announced in January.

Chief Executive of the charity Missing People, Martin Houghton-Brown said: “The potential to work with Friends Reunited and their users to help so many who are still waiting for news of a vulnerable missing loved one, is incredible.

“Inviting Friends Reunited’s 20.6 million members to join the charity’s search for missing people will open up the opportunities for us to grow a unique, and highly visible, corporate partnership.”

For more information visit www.friendsreunited.co.uk or www.missingpeople.org.uk

ENDS.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES:

Missing People – pr@missingpeople.org.uk / 0208 392 4510 / Out-of-hours 07872 600178.

Friends Reunited – press@friendsreunited.co.uk / 01883 717468

NOTES TO EDITOR:

About Friends Reunited
Friends Reunited is the original social network with 20.6 million members, of which 2.9 million were added in 2008. It was launched in 2000 as a back-bedroom hobby to put old school friends back in touch with each other and swiftly became a British media phenomenon. In 2005 Friends Reunited was acquired by ITV and in April 2008 dropped its subscription charge and evolved into an interactive social networking site for grown-ups. The Friends Reunited Group, includes Friends Reunited, Genes Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating. ITV announced on 6 August 2009 that it was selling the Group, subject to clearance by the competition authorities, to online innovation business brightsolid a subsidiary of DC Thomson.

About Missing People (Registered Charity No. 1020419)
We provide support for missing children, vulnerable adults and families left in limbo. We offer families of the missing specialist advice and practical support as well as searching – securing publicity that could end years of heartache.

To make a donation to Missing People call Freefone 0800 2 98 78 58 or visit www.missingpeople.org.uk/donate

Missing People is a proud member of the English Coalition of Runaway Children (ECRC) and Missing Children Europe.

Images available:
o Andy Baker (MD of Friends Reunited)
o Martin Houghton-Brown (Chief Executive of Missing People)
o Missing People logo
o Friends Reunited logo
o Generic image library representing the work of Missing People

Available for interview
o Friends Reunited spokesperson – Andy Baker
o Missing People spokesperson

KEY FACTS

• Close to four million people visit Friends Reunited each month
• 40,000,000 hits are received to www.missingpeople.org.uk each year
• 77% of the cases Missing People publicised last year were resolved

CURRENT PROJECTS:

• In 2008 Missing People published Living in Limbo – the first research of its kind in the UK documenting the experiences of, and impacts on, families of missing people. The report was launched with the support of humanitarian and author Terry Waite CBE.

• Last year the charity launched the first confidential free-to-text (SMS) service for missing children. Runaway Helpline has now received more than 2,000 texts from vulnerable children.

• Missing People won its first ‘Third Sector Excellence’ Award for communications, marketing and campaigning in September 2009. Missing People was nominated alongside ActionAid, Brandon Trust, Crimestoppers, RNID and the Prince’s Trust in the Best Annual Report category. The award recognised ‘the charity that best communicated its organisation’s mission, operations and achievements’.

PRESS RELEASE ~ 25th November 2009

Friends Reunited, the original social networking site with over 20m registered users, has appointed sales agency AD2ONE to sell advertising across its group of sites (including genealogy site Genes Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating) after a competitive pitch.

Each of the three sites within the Friends Reunited Group are designed to help create strong emotional connections online between people and AD2ONE’s remit will be to increase advertising revenue by selling standard advertising packages across the sites as well as working with advertisers and agencies to develop more integrated campaigns.

Andy Baker, Managing Director of Friends Reunited, said: “We undertook a very thorough pitch process and received three high quality pitches. We wanted to work with AD2ONE as they impressed us the most with their clear commercial thinking, fantastic client-support and operations team and terrific track record with other high-volume, rich-data online clients.”

Jo Pike, AD2ONE’s Commercial Director, commented: “Friends Reunited has been an institution in the world of social networks since 2000 and we’re delighted to have been chosen to work with them. We’re really excited to be working with a group of sites in the social space that reaches such a unique audience of 35+ adults. No other brand can reach this type of mature adult audience, and deliver the same type of onsite targeting”

The win comes during a period of sustained growth for AD2ONE with recent wins including Cineworld and The Beauty Quest adding to a portfolio that already boasts leading sites including Expedia, eBay, Disney and BAA.

~ ENDS ~

About The AD2ONE Group – www.ad2onegroup.com

AD2ONE is an independently owned collection of eight digital sales and marketing agencies. Established in 2000, it now employs over 70 people in offices across Europe, Asia and Australia. The AD2ONE Group has grown from a site representation business to become a market leading provider of digital media sales, creative, design and marketing services.

AD2ONE is run by joint managing directors Julian Miall and Grant Allaway and is a founding member of IASH and a member of the IAB and DMA.

For more information about the company please contact jpike@ad2onegroup.com

Friends Reunited – www.friendsreunited.co.uk

• Friends Reunited is the original social network with 20.6 million members, of which 2.9 million were added in 2008. Launched in 2000 as a back-bedroom hobby to put old school friends back in touch with each other it swiftly became a British media phenomenon. Today, the site is a leading UK social network for grown-ups, funded by advertising.

• Genes Reunited is the UK’s leading, mass-market family history brand with 10 million members and over 650 million names listed. One new name is added to the site every second. The strong membership community is the key to the site’s success, as members help each other find common links and shared relations. Members are also able to search through millions of official census, birth, marriages, death and military records. Increasingly aspects of social networking and genealogy are naturally overlapping and the Group is ideally placed to drive these developments. Genes is funded through subscriptions and pay-per-view.

• Friends Reunited Dating is one of the largest paid-for dating sites in the UK with over one million registered members. It is recognised as an easy to use website, with a friendly user community, somewhere to find a serious relationship with a focus on the 35 years old plus market.

For more information about the company please contact Carolynne Bull-Edwards on 01883 717468 or email press@friendsreunited.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE ~ 27th October 2009

FRIENDS REUNITED LAUNCH INTEGRATED WINTER TV AD CAMPAIGN

The Friends Reunited Group is to launch a national TV advertising campaign, promoting its three brands Friends Reunited, Genes Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating, airing for two weeks from the beginning of November.

The two new 30 second adverts are based around typical users’ enjoyable experiences of the websites. Developed by Addiction London, the executions feature a journey between the sites, under the group message of ‘get in touch’. The cheerful testimonial style is set to a backdrop of virtual interactions, echoing the onsite experience.

Jonathan Clark, Head of Friends Reunited, said: “Members’ natural movement between our three services has always been a crucial driver to the business. Presenting the brands closely together in this way helps us get the most out of each 30 second spot, whilst at the same time being true to the onsite experience and containing a strong call to action.

“We’ve explicitly shown the movement between the site’s tabs. With just under 4 million people visiting our websites each month, we want to further nudge them to a greater breadth, depth and regularity of usage. This fully supports our business model, which is a combination of subscription and ad funded services, so we directly generate revenues from increased visits.”

Martin Delamere, Creative Director at Addiction London, said “We wanted to help people imagine what they could do with the family of brands. We decided on an animation style that visually supported the positive story that users report whilst also evoking the actual website. The possibilities for users of the brands are dramatised by the approachable, illustrative icons. We wanted the quality, detail and relaxed tone of the communication to reflect the user experience”.

Media planning by Manning Gottlieb OMD Ltd uses DRTV as a cost efficient channel to target the Group’s audience of 40+ with high frequency of exposure to maximise both response and awareness. The DRTV campaign will be supported by integrated online activity, email marketing and onsite collateral.
~Ends~
NOTES TO THE EDITOR –

About Friends Reunited
Friends Reunited is the original social network with 20.6 million members, of which 2.9 million were added in 2008. It was launched in 2000 as a back-bedroom hobby to put old school friends back in touch with each other and swiftly became a British media phenomenon. In 2005 Friends Reunited was acquired by ITV and in April 2008 dropped its subscription charge and evolved into an interactive social networking site for grown-ups. The Friends Reunited Group, includes Friends Reunited, Genes Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating. ITV announced on 6 August 2009 that it was selling the Group, subject to clearance by the competition authorities, to online innovation business brightsolid a subsidiary of DC Thomson.

For more information contact Carolynne Bull-Edwards

on: 01883 717468 or email press@friendsreunited.co.uk

6th August 2009

BRIGHTSOLID ACQUIRES FRIENDS REUNITED

brightsolid today announced it is to acquire Friends Reunited Group from ITV plc for £25 million. The completion of the deal is subject to clearance by the competition authorities.

brightsolid is a fast growing online innovation business owned by DC Thomson, one of the largest privately owned media and publishing groups in the country. A key part of brightsolid’s strategy is building businesses that link “people and places” on the internet.

Friends Reunited is the original social network with 20.6 million members. It was launched in 2000 to put old school friends back in touch with each other and swiftly became a British media phenomenon. Sister site Genes Reunited was launched in 2003 and is currently the UK’s largest family history website with over 9 million members worldwide and 650 million names listed. Together with Friends Reunited Dating, the group attracts three million unique users per month.

The acquisition of Friends Reunited Group would create Britain’s leading genealogy business by bringing together Genes Reunited and findmypast.com (which operate the official 1901 and 1911 Census websites respectively in association with The National Archives) and ScotlandsPeople in partnership with General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon.

Chris van der Kuyl, CEO brightsolid, said: “We see the acquisition of Friends Reunited Group as an exciting opportunity to provide new focus for and build on the iconic status of the Friends Reunited brands. Between them these brands attract over three million unique users per month. This also marks another step forward in the future strategy of brightsolid, widening its offering to the consumer marketplace, in particular by creating Britain’s leading genealogy business.”

Cont…/

Andy Baker, MD Friends Reunited adds: “We are delighted that brightsolid can see the great value and future potential in the Friends Reunited Group. brightsolid is an innovative online group and by bringing our companies together this way we can build the Friends Reunited business to offer something new and different to our customers. We look forward to working with Chris and the team to develop the business further.”

brightsolid is led by digital media entrepreneur CEO Chris van der Kuyl, who joined in October 2007. The broad reach of its online innovation means The Friends Reunited Group will also benefit from brightsolid’s resilient data centre and managed hosting services.

brightsolid was advised by HMT Corporate Finance on this transaction and Macfarlanes provided the legal services.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

For further information, please contact:

Tony Langham
tonyl@lansons.com
Direct dial: 0207 294 3617
Mobile: 07979 692287

Inez de Koning
inezd@lansons.com
Direct dial: 0207 294 3623
Mobile: 07940 526021

Katie Hayward
katieh@lansons.com
Direct dial: 020 7294 3631
Mobile: 07809 441803

Jennifer Comerford
Jenniferc@lansons.com
Direct dial: 0207 294 3678
Mobile: 07977 473045

About brightsolid

brightsolid began life in 1995 as Scotland Online and is a leading UK independent provider of IT business services to large public and private sector organisations.

brightsolid helps its clients to design and implement high volume, high availability, high performance online products and services. It has done this successfully since the mid 1990s when it became one of the pioneering internet companies of the time. brightsolid has two divisions, online publishing and online technology.

brightsolid’s online technology division is a leading UK independent provider of online IT business services and an ISP delivering business-critical services. The company’s online technology division specialises in managing clients’ information availability and online presence through hosting, internet access, applications and business continuity products and services.

Business Continuity is ensured with dual location and disaster recovery services, including a fully equipped Workplace Recovery suite managed via our partnership with SunGard. brightsolid operates its own data centre underpinned by a resilient and secure network with dual location and disaster recovery options. brightsolid takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously and is ISO14001 certified, which is the standard designed to help organisations minimise how their operations negatively affect the environment.

brightsolid’s online publishing division has significant expertise in the digitisation and management of records in a fast-growing online market. It manages ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk, a partnership between the General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon.

In 2007, brightsolid acquired findmypast.com, an online family history site. findmypast.com was the first website to put the complete birth, marriage and death indexes for England and Wales online. The company also successfully launched ancestorsonboard.com, the online passenger lists records resource, for The National Archives in January 2006. It included details of over 24 million travellers, including the historic details of the Titanic’s maiden voyage. brightsolid recently launched the group’s first, and Scotland’s only, online magazine ‘Discover My Past Scotland’.

Headquartered in Dundee, the company is owned by the publishers D.C. Thomson and has offices in Edinburgh and London.

www.brightsolid.com

About DC Thomson
DC Thomson & Co Ltd is a long-established, family-owned and run company which has been publishing newspapers and magazines for well over 100 years.

The firm produces more than 100 million copies of their many titles each year including respected local and national newspapers, books, annuals and a range of comics and magazines for both adults and children.

DC Thomson has also brought to life some of the UK’s most iconic characters – such as The Beano’s Dennis and Gnasher and The Dandy’s Desperate Dan.

Founded in 1905 it remains a major Scottish publisher, operating from three sites in Dundee, and branch offices in Glasgow, Manchester and London, as well as a chain of local district offices which help the Company retain its links with the communities they serve.

The company has an unrivalled portfolio, owning other companies in the publishing arena such as Aberdeen Journals Ltd, Parragon Publishing Limited, Peter Haddock Publishing Ltd and Puzzler Media Holdings Limited, as well as brightsolid.