1999 MEDIA MAN OF THE YEAR: METRO HOLLAND'S CEO Jan van der Marel, president and CEO of Metro Holland, has been named Media Man of the Year in the Netherlands. He was voted Man of the Year by readers of the Dutch advertising trade publication Reclameweek. Metro was launched in the Netherlands as recently as June this year. According to a respected businessman in the Dutch food products industry, Metro has stirred up the world of daily papers in the country, writes Reclameweek, claiming Metro to be the first free newspaper in the Netherlands and the first new daily successfully launched in the country since World War II. Metro Holland was the fifth version launched since the first started in Stockholm more than four years previously using the same Metro concept, that is, a newspaper financed entirely by advertising revenue and distributed free of charge. Metro will soon celebrate its fifth year of operations, with editions now in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Helsinki, Prague, Budapest, and the Netherlands. During the year 2000, local versions will be launched in Zurich and Newcastle as well as in Santiago, Chile, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania- the first outside Europe. For additional information, please contact Pelle Törnberg, president and CEO of MTG, at +46-8-562 500 50. Modern Times Group MTG AB is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange's O list (symbol: MTG) and on the Nasdaq National Market in New York (symbol: MTGNY). ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/12/09/19991209BIT00680/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/12/09/19991209BIT00680/bit0002.pdf