News Release

For Immediate Release   Contact:  Ron Akie <AKIE@FAXON.COM>
        (617) 329-3350, ext. 292

1996 SUBSCRIPTION PRICE PROJECTION UPDATE
Falling US Dollar Means Steeper 1996 Increases

April 24, 1995, Westwood, MA -- Since we released our initial price projection
for 1996 subscriptions in January, the US dollar has fallen dramatically.   In
the interest of providing librarians objective information, whether the news is
good or bad, to help in planning and budgeting, we have revised our projection
for 1996.   We now expect that a typical collection will see an overall
increase of 14.8 percent, versus our original projection of 13.5 percent.
The US dollar is 9 percent weaker against the key European currencies than we
thought it would be at this time and shows few real signs of significant
recovery.  We think it is prudent, therefore, to add an additional contingency
of at least 5 percent to the Currency Exchange component of the price increase
for European titles.

                January 1995 Projection         April 1995 Revision
                North American  European        North American  European
Page Inflation    2.5%          3.0%            2.5%            3.0%
Paper/Postage     3.0%          3.0%            3.0%            3.0%
General Inflation 2.5%          2.0%            2.5%            2.0%
Cancellations     2.5%          3.0%            2.5%            3.0%
Currency Changes  N/A           7.5%            N/A             12.5%
Total Increase    10.5%         18.5%           10.5%           23.5%
Typical Overall Increase:   13.1%                       14.8%
(based on 67% U.S., 33% European collection)

The increases detailed in each category above represent the net effect that
each component is expected to have on the final subscription price.  For
example, European title page increases in total are expected to be closer to
6%, but the net effect on the price will be 3%.

Key Assumptions.
        %       Page Inflation:  Even with tighter editorial standards,
increased manuscript submissions will result in more published pages again next
year.
        %       Paper and Postage:  After several years of stability, paper
prices have sky-rocketed due to very limited inventories.  Postal costs have
also risen.
        %       General Inflation:  Inflation in both Europe and the U.S. has
been accelerating and is expected to continue to rise at moderate levels.
        %       Cancellations:  Publishers continue to see increased
subscription cancellations and must therefore allocate increasing fixed costs
over a shrinking unit base.
%       Currency:  As explained above, the continued decline in the value of
the US dollar will mean substantial price increases on European subscriptions.
This factor is a direct result of global economies and currency markets and is
fundamentally beyond the control of publishers or agents.

Revised 24 April 1995