UCG NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
Contact:        Lisa Getter, Editorial Director
                     301-287-2514
                     Email: lgetter@ucg.com

GAITHERSBURG, MD, July 20, 2009 — UCG’s Funeral Service Insider has won the 2009 Newsletter Journalism Award from the National Press Club, the third time in four years UCG has won honors in the prestigious national contest.

The winning articles, written by journalist Stephen Lee, exposed a massive insurance fraud at National Prearranged Services, a St Louis insurance company. Funeral Service Insider uncovered the company’s questionable business practices over the course of 11 issues and 20,000 words, as state regulators moved in to shut down the company. He pored through thousands of pages of court filings, NPS contracts, emails, sworn affidavits and campaign contributions, always one step ahead of the investigators.

Funeral Service Insider is published by UCG’s Kates-Boylston division.

"When times are tough in the news business, it is especially important to celebrate excellence in journalism," said NPC President Donna Leinwand, in announcing the awards. "These reporters represent the best of our craft. Their articles have exposed critical problems for consumers, kept our government and politicians honest and solved community problems. We are thrilled to honor them."

The prize will be presented at a dinner in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 3rd.

UCG’s Voice Report won the 2007 First Place Award in the Newsletter Exclusive Category for managing editor Jessica Gdowski’s investigative piece about hard-hitting business tactics at Avaya, a leading telecom vendor. A DecisionHealth editor won a 2006 National Press Club Honorable Mention for her investigative piece about misleading coding advice that vendors were giving to unsuspecting physicians.

“We are delighted that Funeral Service Insider’s expose was honored in this national contest,” said UCG Editorial Director Lisa Getter, who helped edit the piece. “While so many newspapers are cutting back on investigative reporting, it is more important now than ever for the specialty press to keep digging away at stories like these.”

UCG has won more awards for its specialty journalism than any other business information company in America. This year, it continued its 30-year streak of winning prizes from the Specialty Information Publishers Foundation, capturing seven editorial awards at its national awards luncheon in June. All told, UCG has won 117 awards in that national contest.

UCG NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Brian Crotty, President, OPIS 9737 Washingtonian Blvd Suite 100 Gaithersburg, Md. 20878 301-287-2488 Email: bcrotty@ucg.com

Barry Habib, CEO, Mortgage Market Guide 24 South Holmdel Road Suite 1B Holmdel, NJ 07733 800-963-1900 Email: barry@mortgagemarketguide.com

UCG experts continue to provide valuable insight on today’s most critical issues – the trends in gasoline demand and prices, and the effects of the banking and credit crisis on the housing market and home mortgages and auto loans.

These insights come from UCG’s Tom Kloza, OPIS publisher and chief oil analyst, and Barry Habib, CEO of the Mortgage Market Guide service.

UCG portfolio company Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) is the world’s most comprehensive source for petroleum pricing and news information, gathered by more than 50 information specialists, including the most experienced editors in the business, combining over 200 years of industry experience.

UCG company Mortgage Success Source is the leading source of analysis for loan originators. Its components are MMG, LoanToolbox and The Duncan Group. 

Examples of the expertise of Kloza and Habib: 

Tom Kloza talks to Matt Lauer on The Today Show about gas prices.
View Clip

Tom Kloza discusses what causes high gas prices on NBC Nightly News.
View Clip

Barry Habib appeared on FOX Business to discuss the "Dos" and "Don'ts" that consumers can use right now to improve credit scores and save money on car loans and mortgage payments.
View Clip

Barry Habib appeared on FOX Business to discuss important developments relating to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Option ARMs, troubled banks, and the FDIC.
View Clip

Barry explains HR 3221 on FOX Business and describes the opportunities that it creates.
View Clip

Barry addresses the current state of the housing market on Fox Business News.
View Clip

UCG NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Brian Crotty, President
9737 Washingtonian Blvd.
Suite 100
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
301-287-2488
Email: bcrotty@ucg.com

August 27, 2008
OPIS Launches "iGasUp" iPhone App to Help Consumers Shop for Fuel

Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), the nation’s leading supplier of retail gasoline and diesel fuel pricing information, has launched an innovative new service on the iPhone that will help millions of users shop for the cheapest fuel.
 
“The iPhone changes the game for consumers when shopping for the best prices on goods and services. The immediacy of being able to use the iPhone to perform targeted internet queries anywhere allows people to optimize their purchasing dollar,” said Michael Sinsky, CIO, OPIS.

Users needing to fill up simply touch the iGasUp icon on their iPhone and the phone’s GPS system locates their position and returns the 10 cheapest fueling stations in the area. The actual prices are displayed in low-to-high order, along with the brand and address.
 
“This is a perfect marriage between data and technology that will allow consumers to gain more control over their fueling costs,” said Fred Rozell, Director of Retail Pricing for OPIS.
 
If a customer is planning on filling up in another location, they have the option of entering in a zip code and the phone will return the 10 cheapest fueling stations in that particular area.
 
Customers have the option to pre-select their fuel search criteria: Regular Unleaded Gasoline, Premium Unleaded or Diesel.

For more information on the iGasUp application, please visit www.igasup.com

UCG NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dan Brown, Partner
11300 Rockville Pike Suite
1100 Rockville, Md. 20852-3030
301-287-2254
Email: dbrown@ucg.com

ROCKVILLE, MD, September 19, 2007 – UCG today officially disclosed to the media the spectacular details of its 30th Anniversary Company Trip to “Somewhere.” Details of the trip, by far the most elaborate and complicated of any of the previous six trips that UCG has orchestrated to celebrate its amazing growth, had been kept secret for the two years it took to plan the surprise adventure.

A total of 1,030 UCG employees and guests made the all-expenses-paid trip to San Francisco, but were not told of their destination until they were on the plane, just hours away from landing. They spent the full Labor Day Weekend treated to world-class celebrity entertainment, exclusive tours of the City, fine dining and a magical excursion to Napa Valley wine country.

“The Trip to Somewhere, which we take every five years, is our special way of celebrating our success and thanking our employees and their significant others for their contribution to building a great company,” said UCG co-founder Bruce Levenson.

The logistical challenges of the trip were staggering. They were handled by four sworn-to-secret staffers in UCG’s internal conference-planning department under the direction of UCG veteran Julie Upton. Moving 1,030 people to one location -- the historic Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco -- from UCG’s seven offices on both Coasts, and then home again, involved chartering several jets, clearing airport security checkpoints, anticipating emergency needs, police escorts through San Francisco for 24 buses and more. On top of planning the transcontinental travel for a thousand people was coordination of tours, entertainment, lodging and meals during the stay in San Francisco.

“Looking back, it was a pretty amazing feat of project management and my team thrived on the excitement of the challenge,” said Upton.

 Here are just a few of the highlights of the trip:

• An exhilarating sunrise hike across the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Private tours of Alcatraz, the famous Muir Woods redwood grove, and the Sausalito shopping district.
• Chinatown walking tour, featuring an authentic dragon dance, dim sum for lunch and a visit to the world’s leading provider of fortune cookies.
• Sunset cruise of San Francisco Bay aboard a paddle-wheeler, taking celebrants underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, a rare and awe-inspiring view.
• The big gala event, with comedian Dana Carvey from Saturday Night Live and the Grammy-award-winning Pointer Sisters performing exclusively for UCG.
• A private wine-tasting and dinner at Napa Valley’s premier Rubicon Estate, owned by Francis Ford Coppola. Live jazz, harpists and tours of the wine caves round out the experience.

 “The impression this trip has made on our employees is nothing short of awesome,” said UCG co-founder Ed Peskowitz. Here is what one UCG employee, Esther Oakley, a 29-year-old I/T manager posted in her blog about the trip: “Being taken care of all weekend. Treated like someone really important. Feeling truly appreciated for what I do here. Feeling part of something bigger than myself, something exciting. Knowing that I work for people I can truly respect and look up to. I feel like I'm on another planet, and I am not ready to go back to the one that represents my normal life. This was so incredible, and I can't remember the last time I felt this way. This is what it feels like to be truly happy. I'm floating on air.”

“Several reporters who are writing articles on company perks have called to interview me about the company trip. I point out to them that we don’t view the trip as a perk. It’s a UCG tradition, a way of expressing our gratitude and celebrating success,” said UCG partner Dan Brown, who joined UCG in 1983 as a journalist. “Sure, the trip is bound to help with recruitment and retention – and we do use it as a chance to ask spouses of our employees how we can improve the company -- but what strikes me most is how the trip changes the world view of so many people, broadening their perspective, how it connects co-workers in ways that aren’t possible during a 50-hour week and how for some employees who are going through tough times in their private lives, the trip is a reminder that good things can and do happen.” UCG’s five-year anniversary trips have taken place in New York City, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, and Marco Island Florida.

Founded in 1977, UCG is one of America’s leading, privately held providers of specialized business-to-business information. UCG’s portfolio is composed of companies serving the information and software needs of decision-makers in health care, oil & energy, high technology, telecommunications, banking & finance and the mortgage industry. UCG employs 700 people. Its headquarters are in Rockville, Md., but it also has offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Seattle and Minneapolis. The company has received many awards for journalistic excellence and was recently voted one of D.C.’s 50 Best Places to Work, by Washingtonian Magazine.

 Photos of the 30th Anniversary Trip are available to the press on request.

International flavor highlights tourney in Tel Aviv

By Jane Lee, USA TODAY
May 31, 2007

Ed Peskowitz will not be tuning into another dose of the seemingly never-ending saga of the NBA playoffs next week. The Atlanta Hawks co-owner has plans of his own in Israel, and he's taking the game of basketball with him.

From Friday through June 8, Peskowitz will act as the guiding force behind the second annual Friendship Games basketball tournament at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

"My hope is to use basketball as the vehicle to bring people of all faiths and cultures together," Peskowitz said.

The creation of the games began two years ago when Peskowitz met Arie Rosenzweig, athletics director of Tel Aviv University, and Kowalsky Ilan, athletics director at the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya.

Thirty men's college teams from 17 countries, none of them American, will compete in the round-robin style tournament with each team playing five games. Several of the countries participating, including Israel, Jordan, Cyprus and Turkey, have a history of conflict with each other. Jewish, Muslim and Christian teams will compete.

"Israelis love basketball, so we saw an opportunity to bring people together through the common interest of the sport," Peskowitz said.

In addition to the tournament, players come together in friendship by touring places such as the Dead Sea, Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee.

"It was a wonderful experience to play in last year's games," Serbia player Vlada Zivic said. "It was great to meet people from different countries, to see very important historical and religious places, and to start new friendships and finally discover and learn about other cultures."

Zivic recalls great pleasure in seeing "guys playing together with no tension," an aspect that player Hakim Tamimi Marinio of Jordan also found memorable.

"Getting to know socialist Israelis was one of my favorite moments," Marinio said. "We didn't have to think about the conflict between our countries because of the sport environment."

Peskowitz says the games not only encourage the students to play together, but also allow them to explore and grow together off the court.

During the first night's events last year, Peskowitz remembers the reaction of Jordanian players when a female Israeli game show host — one equivalent to America's own Vanna White of "Wheel of Fortune" — showed up.

"They were all surrounding her and asking her for autographs," Peskowitz said. "It just goes to show that the Jordanians breathe the same air, have the same dreams and watch the same TV as the Israelis."

Peskowitz knows he's not going to change the world, but he says watching friendships form is beyond rewarding and satisfying.

"Ed has a great vision and a big heart," Rosenzweig said. "For me to see a Jordanian basketball team in my sports hall was very emotional."

For eight days, it's about the people rather than the politics. It's about Greeks and Turks sharing a taxi and Jordanians using the swimming pool at an Israeli university.

"It's about the small steps in creating change," Peskowitz said. "We're using basketball to make all of this happen. It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but what's happening is incredible."

Associated Press Financial Wire
May 17, 2007

TechTarget Inc., one of the week's most anticipated initial public offerings, climbed sharply in first-day trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market Thursday.

The Needham, Mass.-based company provides online content aimed at bringing together buyers and sellers of corporate information technology products.

TechTarget's shares rose $1.79, or 14 percent, to close at $14.79 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, up from their IPO price of $13, set by underwriters Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Some 7.7 million shares were sold into the oversubscribed offering, which priced at the midpoint of the expected, per-share price range of $12 to $14.

Analysts reported strong demand for shares in TechTarget, which continues the resurgence of IPOs from the technology sector. It marks the 13th technology stock to go public so far this year, representing 18 percent of all IPOs priced in the United States, according to Thomson Financial.

This time last year, only eight technology stocks, representing 12 percent of all IPOs, had gone public.

According to TechTarget, IT professionals have come to rely on its sector-specific Web sites to help them make purchasing decisions. "Our content enables IT professionals to navigate the complex and rapidly changing IT landscape where purchasing decisions can have significant financial and operational consequences," TechTarget said in its prospectus.

The company operates 36 Web sites that focus on specific IT sectors, such as storage, security or networking. It complements that with in-person events and three IT magazines.

TechTarget, which had 4.9 million registered users at the end of March, derives almost all of its revenue by selling advertising to its 1,000 plus active advertisers, which include Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Inc., and International Business Machines Corp.

TechTarget said it delivered more than 3,400 advertising campaigns in 2006 and its average quarterly advertising renewal rate for its 100 largest customers was 92 percent.

The company generated revenue of $18.3 million in the first quarter, resulting in a net profit of $317,000.

Last year, the company booked revenue of $79 million and a $7.2 million profit.

TechTarget plans to use its IPO proceeds to repay $12.0 million under its revolving credit facility and for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

UCG NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
 Contact: Lisa Getter, Editorial Director
 301-287-2514 Email: lgetter@ucg.com

Or Dan Brown, Partner
301-287-2254 Email: dbrown@ucg.com

ROCKVILLE, MD, June 29, 2006 – UCG journalists won 12 prestigious awards in four national competitions in 2006, continuing the company’s 25-year record of winning national prizes for outstanding editorial content.

The Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Foundation honored UCG with three first-place David Swit Journalism prizes and six others for excellence in journalism in its international contest. No other business information publisher won as many NEPF awards this year as UCG. The nine awards bring UCG’s total in the competition to 95, a record unmatched by any business-to-business company in America.

“We are commited to quality journalism at UCG,” said Dan Brown, the UCG partner in charge of editorial.

DecisionHealth’s Wendy Vogenitz won the Excellence in Health Care Journalism award from the Association of Health Care Journalists for “Misleading Coding Advice,” a 12-page investigative report in Anesthesia & Pain Coder’s Pink Sheet.

The report, which revealed that fraudulent claims for a back pain table could be costing Medicare and private insurance companies more than $67 million a year, also received an Honorable Mention from the National Press Club for best exclusive newsletter. Wendy will be honored at a July 17th banquet at the Press Club in Washington, D.C.

The Association of Business Publication Editors last night awarded Kates-Boylston’s Edward J. Defort and Jen Kiernan a silver award for best magazine special section in the Northeast. They wrote “Katrina’s Wake,” a 32-page special section in American Funeral Director. It was designed by Allison Sullivan.

“We are thrilled to see our journalists compete and win prizes from both specialized and mainstream press organizations,” said Lisa Getter, UCG’s editorial director.

UCG’s first-place NEPF awards this year were for best spot/exclusive news, best single topic product and best reference publication. The awards went to:

• Edward J. Defort, of Kates-Boylston, for "Case Closed," a riveting tale about the murder of a funeral home director and an intern published in American Funeral Director. It won best exclusive/spot news story.

 • Alan Prochoroff, of Argosy, for his exhaustive coverage in Insurance Compliance Week of the regulatory impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the insurance industry. Alan won for Best Single Topic Product.

• Nicholas Rummell, David Grant and Todd Leeuwenburgh, of DecisionHealth, for "Private Payer Answer Book." It won Best Reference Publication.

Other UCG winners were:

• Ben Brockwell, Jessica Nesterak, Denton Cinquegrana, Randy Lusby, Ai-Fen Lin, Jason Shelton and Billy DeMarco, of OPIS, for the OPIS Spot Ticker. The team won second place for Best Interactive Content.

• Wendy Vogenitz, of DecisionHealth, for "Misleading Coding Advice." Wendy won third place in Best Investigative Reporting.

• Carole Donoghue, of OPIS, for her expose of a disbarred lawyer who left a trail of infuriated legal officials and misled clients across the country. The report in Oil Express won an honorable mention in Best Investigative Reporting.

• Wendy Johnson, of DecisionHealth, for her report on how home care agencies could expand their services to babysitting. Her piece in Private Duty Insider won an honorable mention for Best Instructional Reporting.

• Edward Defort, of Kates-Boylston, for "Survivor Louisiana," his story in American Funeral Director about the impact of Katrina on a New Orleans funeral home. It won an honorable mention for Best Spot News.

• Ron Newlin, of ATX/Kleinrock, for "Tax Aspects of Owning a Home." It received an honorable mention for Best Reference Publication.

For the first time, NEPF also awarded prizes for best marketing. UCG won two of the six prizes awarded. Sharon Cappucci, of OPIS, won a first-place prize for Best Non-Print Marketing for her online and email efforts to market a special Hurricane Katrina audio-conference that attracted 700 customers in one week. 

Novella Green won third place in the Best Print Marketing effort, for her brochure promoting this year’s Credit Union National Director’s Conference, which is already breaking attendance records.

Read some of the prize-winning journalism here.

Vacation Deprivation: The Lost Art of Taking Time Off
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 25, 2006;

Are you running off to the beach this year? Is your car packed with beach umbrellas, rusty beach chairs, a BlackBerry, laptop and several cellphones? Are you taking just one week instead of your allotted two?

Then I guess you're all set.

That's because one in four workers plans to work while on vacation this year, according to CareerBuilder.com's annual survey. (So is it still considered vacation? Or are you just working from a prettier office?)

Meanwhile, workers are expected to give back 574 million vacation days in 2006, depriving themselves of much-needed breaks, according to Expedia.com's annual vacation deprivation survey. The number of vacation days employees are skipping this year increased by one over last year. On average, Americans leave at least four days unclaimed annually.

"People in America don't take all the vacation time they should or could," said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, which is based in the District. "People in this country, especially in this geographic area, actually work very hard, have very long hours and are under a lot of stress. . . . It's a very tough world out there, and unfortunately it has the effect of leading people to take less vacation or, when they take it, they take much of their work with them. And they are under a lot of stress and having problems balancing their lives."

Vacation, she said, could help ease stress and would, therefore, cut down on health problems.

Compared with other developed countries, Americans receive the fewest vacation days per year on average -- 14 days, as opposed to 17 in Australia, 19 in Canada, 24 in Great Britain, 27 in Germany and 39 in France, according to the Expedia survey. So not only do we earn less vacation time, but we also take less than we're provided. (Could this be the root of road rage?)

At least one company, however, has put the vacation dilemma into the laps of its own employees. UCG, a Rockville publisher of business newsletters, electronic magazines and directories, has had an open leave policy since 1994. That means none of its 1,000 employees has a set amount of sick leave or vacation time.

The enlightened plan stemmed from a realization that no matter the policy any employer puts in place, someone will ask to change or bend the rules. Because many employers have to go through all sorts of machinations when it comes to vacation time anyway, UCG decided to let its employees judge how much vacation they need and when. "We have a lot of respect for our employees, and they know what they need to get the job done," said Jerry Purcell, director of human resources at UCG. The employees need to work through their managers when they determine which days they need off. But there is no limit.

One gentleman took eight weeks to ride his bike across the country (you call that a vacation?), and another woman had the opportunity to tour China for six weeks after being with the company for just two months. UCG paid for two weeks of her vacation and provided half pay for four more weeks, Purcell recalled. "Every now and again, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity comes up," he said. "I don't think you should have to sit there and say 'Well, I used my vacation last year.' Talk to us."

He said the amount of time people take doesn't really vary from a normal structured plan.

In yet another vacation survey (hey, this stuff is important, folks!) 20 percent of 400 workers surveyed had not taken a vacation, which is considered three or more consecutive days off, in the last three or more years. The same survey, conducted by TrueCareers, a division of Sallie Mae, found that 91 percent of respondents said the amount of vacation offered is very or somewhat important when applying for a job. But only 26 percent said they had considered changing jobs because of insufficient vacation time.

Chris McManus, however, did. He turned down a job offer several years ago because he wanted four to six weeks of vacation. He even tried to negotiate a lower salary to get more vacation, but the company said it was a no-go. "People say I'm crazy," he said. But this man needs his vacation.

McManus has since launched his own marketing consultancy, CenterStage Communications, in Brooklyn. Being a small-business owner, one would think he wouldn't have time for vacation now anyway. But in fact, he takes the entire month of August off. "I can't believe in the U.S. we only get two weeks of vacation a year. Then we're discouraged from taking two at the same time. Then we're to be accessible and do work on that vacation," he said.

He tells his clients that they can save their monthly fee in August while he takes a vacation or that he will reduce the fee and do a small amount of work while he is away. The fact is, however, things are slow in August, anyway. So he argues that he saves his clients money while also getting his own energy back.

This year, it looks as if he will be joining some friends who have rented a house in southern France.

"A week is not enough to whet my palate," he said. So when he takes a vacation, he really takes it. His trips usually involve touring foreign cities, and he tries to pick one starting point with a few stops along the way. "I go for a change of pace. I have a daily routine at home, and I love it. But for three or four weeks in August, I want to do something else."

And then, it's back to work at a frenetic pace -- which he can handle with aplomb, thanks to his month of vacation.

NEPA Hotline
May 15, 2006

Why would UCG, a company that prides itself on building great products for the long term, sell CodeCorrect, one of its fastest growing and most promising health-care information services?

Even though it is the biggest divestiture in UCG’s 27-year history and a portion of the proceeds was immediately reinvested to acquire another large and fast-growing information company — LoanToolbox, a comprehensive information service for loan originators — there was a critical twist to the CodeCorrect deal.

"Selling a unit with enormous growth potential (for the past three years Inc. Magazine named CodeCorrect as one of America’s fastest growing companies) wasn’t easy, but we were faced with one of those rare opportunities where we could have our cake and eat it too," said Ed Peskowitz, one of UCG’s founding partners.

Peskowitz explained: CodeCorrect develops and provides software solutions hospitals use to code and file reimbursement claims with Medicare and private insurance companies. Its focus is and will be on the hospital side of the business. As a result, CodeCorrect has a relatively small presence in the physician market, the health-care niche UCG knows best.

In the process of selling CodeCorrect to Accuro Healthcare Solutions, UCG negotiated an exclusive licensing agreement to market, sell and enhance the CodeCorrect database of information to medical group practices.

It means UCG will continue to play, grow and thrive in the physician market, Peskowitz said. "Our coding product for medical group practices, which will continue to be powered by CodeCorrect, is the most comprehensive database of public and proprietary content available anywhere. The licensing agreement means we’ll be able to blow out our coding products for physicians and continue to increase market share. 

"This was a great deal for us and a win/win for all involved," Peskowitz said. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, Accuro was backed by $100 million from private equity firm Welsh, Carson, according to published reports.

Ed Peskowitz, UCG, 11300 Rockville Pike, Suite 1100, Rockville, MD 20852-3030 (301)287-2700 Fax: (301)816-8945 E-mail: pesko@ucg.com  Web: www.ucg.com  

UCG NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lisa Getter, Editorial Director
11300 Rockville Pike Suite 1100
Rockville, Md. 20852-3030
301-287-2514 Email: lgetter@ucg.com

ROCKVILLE, MD, May. 19, 2006 – For the second year in a row, UCG has won a “workplace seal of approval” award for its quality working environment, the Alliance for Workplace Excellence announced today.

The award recognizes “visionary employers” that realize there is a competitive advantage to providing a workplace that puts a premium on the personal and professional lives of its employees.

UCG’s unique perks include an open leave policy, a roving daily fruit cart and a commitment to training. Every five years, the company takes all its employees on a special anniversary trip.

The company also encourages philanthropy. Employees are given time off to volunteer in the community, helping local schools and other non-profits.

UCG was one of 48 companies honored by the non-profit alliance this year. The winners “had to demonstrate outstanding commitment to balanced leadership and the overall success of their workforce,” the alliance said.

An independent team of business experts and graduate students from Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities made site visits and analyzed employee surveys and written applications before choosing the winners.

“It is a great honor to receive the ‘Workplace Excellence Seal of Approval’ and to know that, by community standards, we are providing employees a top-quality place to work,” said UCG partner Nancy Becker.

The excellence award is the second company honor UCG has received in the past year. In November, Washingtonian magazine voted UCG as one of the top places to work in the Washington metropolitan area.

Founded in 1977, UCG is one of America’s leading providers of specialized business-to-business information. UCG’s portfolio comprises several vertical companies serving the information and software needs of decision-makers in health care, tax, oil & energy, high technology, telecommunications, banking & finance and education.

UCG, which is headquartered in Rockville, has 1,000 employees nationwide.

For Immediate Release
Contact:  Susan McKenna, Marketing Director
                LoanToolbox
                805-277-6829
                susanm@loantoolbox.com

Or            Todd Foreman, Partner 
                UCG
                tforeman@ucg.com

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA – April 18, 2006 -- UCG, the nation's leading provider of business information, tools and guidance for two million professionals worldwide, has formed a strategic partnership with LoanToolbox, a fast-growing provider of educational and marketing tools for mortgage originators.

The transaction enables LoanToolbox to leverage UCG's 28 years of experience in product design and development, direct marketing, market analysis, content creation and enhancement, software solutions, and the development of trade shows and seminars to rapidly grow its core business.

"When we launched LTB, our goal was to be the primary source of products mortgage originators depend on to grow market share, increase profitability and keep ahead of the competition. In a short time, we succeeded in establishing LoanToolbox as the go-to source of solutions for originators nationwide," said Tim Braheem, LTB founder. "Now we're ready to take the next big step."

"With access to UCG resources and expertise, we're confident LTB will quickly become the pre-eminent source of guidance and solutions for mortgage originators," Braheem added.

UCG's ability to create excellent content, software solutions, and marketing tools is widely known and well established. The company has won numerous awards from the Newsletter and Electronic Publishers Association, the National Press Club, and other professional societies and trade organizations.

UCG serves business professionals in health care, technology, finance, energy, telecommunications, tax research and tax preparation. UCG also delivers products to mortgage bankers and brokers. Two divisions of UCG were recently named to Inc. Magazine's list of fastest growing companies.

"What Tim Braheem and his group have accomplished in such a short time is spectacular,” said Todd Foreman, UCG Partner. "LTB has enormous upside -- it's a platform and model UCG can tap, modify and emulate to create similar product lines in new vertical spaces."

LoanToolbox is lean, agile and fast-moving. "We'll encourage and help them to keep sprinting ahead," Foreman said. "They have access to our resources and experience, best practices, and UCG's formula for success. LTB has a great future ahead."

About United Communications Group
Based in Rockville, MD, UCG produces hundreds of products to the various industries it serves. UCG has 1,000 employees in seven states. The privately held company was recently named by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the great places to work in the nation's Capital.

About LoanToolbox
LoanToolbox is the leading provider of training and marketing solutions for the Mortgage Loan industry. LoanToolbox’s exclusive online community offers an Internet-based solution that combines interactive content aligned with the business needs and objectives of results-driven mortgage originators, loan officers and real estate financing consultants. The company also provides one-on-one coaching service for loan originators and hosts the wildly successful annual conference, BusinessPlan 2007. Comprehensive information about LoanToolbox can be found on the Web at: www.loantoolbox.com.

For more information please contact:

Brian Crotty, President, OPIS
301-287-2488
bcrotty@opisnet.com

Rich Lisauskas, President, AXXIS
603-216-5353
rlisauskas@axxispetro.com 

Rockville, MD, August 12, 2005 -- Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), the nation’s leading provider of petroleum spot, rack and retail news and pricing information, announces the acquisition of AXXIS Petroleum. Based in St. Paul, Minn., AXXIS provides software solutions for petroleum marketers looking to automate their price collection, data storage and repricing of dealer and commercial accounts. AXXIS is also a rack pricing information provider.

 “The addition of AXXIS strengthens our rack price offering and allows us to serve our customers’ needs of price aggregation, build-up and re-pricing through AXXIS’ market-leading software applications,” said Brian Crotty, President, OPIS. AXXIS will remain a division of OPIS and will be run by AXXIS President, Rich Lisauskas. “OPIS’ considerable experience in downstream oil markets will only enhance our ability to deliver quality software and support for our customers,” Lisauskas said. Recognizing that AXXIS rack prices are heavily benchmarked in many reseller and end-user agreements, OPIS will honor all agreements to provide existing AXXIS price feeds and formats to all AXXIS customers.

 “We want to be sure our customers and purchasing agents have adequate time to change their contracts and systems before merging any data feeds,” Crotty said. OPIS (www.opisnet.com) is the only U.S. pricing service that provides proprietary price discovery and news for all spot, rack and retail petroleum markets. OPIS has provided rack (wholesale) prices and news to customers for more than 28 years. OPIS is one of a number of portfolio companies comprising Rockville, Md.-based UCG.

UCG is one of America’s leading providers of business information and software solutions. (www.ucg.com) AXXIS Petroleum is a leading provider of integrated software and market data solutions for the refined products industry. (www.axxispetro.com)  

UCG NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
        Contact: Dan Brown, Partner
        11300 Rockville Pike Suite
        Suite 1100
        Rockville, Md. 20852-3030
        301-287-2254
        Email: dbrown@ucg.com

ROCKVILLE, MD, June 9-2005—The Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Association this week gave its highest honor to UCG founding partners Ed Peskowitz and Bruce Levenson, inducting them into the association’s Hall of Fame. Ed and Bruce were selected by a nominating committee of the board based on their contributions to the association and the specialized-information industry.

“Bruce and Ed are an inspiration to us all. Not only have they grown to be a very large, independently owned and operated publishing venture since 1977, they have had fun along the way,” said Bob Jenkins, a NEPA past-president, who announced the award at the association’s annual conference at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington. The two founded UCG, which is one of America’s leading providers of business-to-business information, in 1977 in the warehouse space above Bruce’s father’s liquor store. There, Bruce recalled to a NEPA crowd that honored him and Ed with a standing ovation, the two “banged away on royal typewriters—we couldn’t afford those fancy IBM Selectrics—creating 8-page newsletters and 4-page marketing pieces until 3 a.m.”

Their first newsletter was Oil Express. They distributed it themselves, pushing the copies under hotel doors at a convention of oil marketers in Houston. These days, Oil Express is just one of more than 100 newsletters published under the UCG corporate umbrella. A lot has changed since those early days. Bruce and Ed brought in four other partners to help run the company, and they’ve made about 40 acquisitions.

UCG now employs about 1,000 employees. Its diverse portfolio serves the information and software needs of decision-makers in health care, tax, oil & energy, high technology, telecommunications, banking and finance and education. While building their company, Bruce and Ed still found time to give back to their industry, the NEPA nominating board noted. Bruce served on the NEPA board from 1990 through 1996, and Ed served on the board from 1999 through 2005. Bruce chaired the association’s first marketing conference in New York and Ed chaired the education committee. Each has been a keynote speaker at NEPA conferences.

 “Ed and I are truly grateful you have honored us today,” Levenson said in accepting the award. “NEPA’s Hall of Fame is filled with good people who have taught us much and we are proud to be included among them.” Bruce continues to drive UCG’s business strategy, while Ed focuses on marketing across all of UCG’s divisions. The two are also part owners of the Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta Thrashers, as well as their home stadium, the Phillips Arena.

UCG’s headquarters are in Rockville, Md., but it also has offices in Boston, Mass.; Ft. Pierce, Fla.; Covina, Calif.; Caribou, Maine; Lakewood, N.J.; and Yakima, Wash.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS:
Christopher Callahan
Associate Dean
Philip Merrill College of Journalism
University of Maryland College Park, Md. 20742
301-405-2432
Email: ccallahan@jmail.umd.edu
 
Dan Brown
Partner & Senior Publisher
UCG 11300 Rockville Pike
Suite 1100 Rockville, Md. 20852-3030
301-287-2254
Email: dbrown@ucg.com

COLLEGE PARK, MD., March 3, 2005 – UCG and the University of Maryland jointly announced today the creation of a new scholarship program for students pursuing careers in business journalism. The UCG Business Journalism Scholarship will be awarded annually to a Philip Merrill College of Journalism undergraduate who has demonstrated an aptitude and interest in business writing and reporting. The scholarship includes a $5,000 award, a paid summer internship at UCG and a part-time fall academic internship.

The UCG Business Journalism Fellowship will be awarded annually to an incoming journalism master’s degree candidate interested in business journalism. The fellowship includes UCG’s award of $10,500, which the college will match, a $7,000 stipend and payment of all tuition by the University. The fellowship also includes a paid summer internship at UCG and a part-time academic internship.

 “Journalism has never had greater need of reporters who can understand and convey the complexities of business,” said Journalism Dean Thomas Kunkel. “We want to thank UCG for this very generous commitment to business journalism and to our students.”

UCG publishes a wide variety of award-winning business-to-business newsletters and magazines on such topics as health care, telecommunications, banking, high technology, tax and the oil industry. “The scholarship and fellowship programs are a natural extension of the excellent relationship that has formed over the years between UCG and the University of Maryland,” said Dan Brown, UCG partner and senior publisher.

“The program will help Maryland’s journalism school attract the highest caliber student and it paves the way for the high-achieving graduates to join the editorial team of one of the country’s leading B2B publishing companies,” he continued.

“Those who qualify for the scholarship will receive great training and business journalism experience at an exciting company” added Lisa Getter, a Pulitzer Prize team winner and UCG’s new corporate editorial director. Getter joined UCG after working as an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times and The Miami Herald.

UCG employs 1,000 people and is headquartered in Rockville, Md. It also has offices in Boston, Florida, Washington State, California and Maine. The company is privately held.

UCG NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
       Contact: Dan Brown, Partner
       11300 Rockville Pike
        Suite 1100
        Rockville, Md. 20852-3030
        301-287-2254
        Email: dbrown@ucg.com

ROCKVILLE, MD, January 31, 2005 –  After 22 years at daily newspapers, award-winning investigative reporter Lisa Getter has joined UCG as its new corporate editorial director. Lisa, who was twice a member of Pulitzer Prize winning teams and twice a nominated finalist, is one of America’s leading investigative reporters.

She comes to UCG after six years at the Washington Bureau of the Los Angeles Times. She joined the Times’ investigative team in 1998 after 16 years at the Miami Herald. “As UCG’s editorial director, Lisa will teach and preach the tricks of the trade to a staff that is already used to winning journalism awards,” said Dan Brown, UCG’s partner in charge of editorial content. In addition, Lisa will head up UCG’s journalism internship program and champion the company’s growing editorial-recruitment efforts, he said.

Lisa received a Bachelor of Science from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1982 and was a 1995 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. She also served on the national board of directors of Investigative Reporters and Editors. She joined the Miami Herald right out of college. During her years there, Lisa exposed corrupt cops and politicians. Her report on the shortcomings of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service won Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize in Investigative Reporting. She was a key member of the team that won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for public service, documenting how South Florida’s building codes and lax inspection practices led to the devastation caused by Hurricane Andrew. She was also a writer and reporter on the Herald team that uncovered massive voter fraud in a city election, work that won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting.

At The Los Angeles Times, Lisa uncovered problems at the National Imagery and Mapping Agency and arbitrary decision-making by America’s immigration judges. She also revealed the inner-workings of the group behind the annual National Prayer Breakfast. Known as The Fellowship, it has had extraordinary access to world and national leaders for more than 50 years. She most recently covered campaign finance in the 2004 presidential elections.

Lisa, 45, is married and has one son (almost 2) and two stepdaughters, 11 and 14.

Founded in 1977, UCG is one of America’s leading providers of specialized business-to-business information. UCG’s portfolio comprises several vertical companies serving the information and software needs of decision-makers in health care, tax, oil & energy, high technology, telecommunications, banking & finance and education. UCG employs 1,000 people. Its headquarters are in Rockville, Md., but it also has offices in Boston, Mass.; Ft. Pierce, Fla.; Covina, Calif.; Caribou, Maine; Lakewood, N.J.; and Yakima, Wash.

By Harry Baisden
NEPA Hotline
January 5, 2004

Whether you’re running a large company with a number of disparate divisions or a small company with a dozen or fewer employees and only a couple of products, UCG’s annual kickoff meetings’ concept, or an adaptation of it, might be just what the doctor ordered to keep your employees’ working together and headed for the same goals — yours.

With more than 1,000 employees in what UCG’s Web site lists as 15-plus companies, the specialized-information publisher based in Rockville, MD, decided a couple of years ago to start a program having each of those divisions hold its own annual kickoff meeting at the beginning of each fiscal year. Since many of the companies’ fiscal years correspond to the calendar year, most of the kickoffs are held in January or early February.

Dan Brown, a partner and senior publisher in the company, said UCG used to hold an annual company-wide kickoff session, but growth made individual division-level kickoffs more efficient.

“It’s a terrific venue for the division presidents to lay out their visions, plans and goals for the upcoming year,” Brown said, “and an awesome opportunity to recognize each division’s top achievers of the past year.”

The kickoff meetings are also attended by one or more of the company’s six partners. “We want every employee to feel he or she is a part of a larger organization, and the partners’ attendance at these meetings help us accomplish that,” Brown said.

The kickoffs allow the division presidents to demonstrate their commitment to a goal. In some cases, Brown said, the presidents use the occasion to allow their management team leaders to state their own goals for their work groups in the context of the president’s overall goals. “It’s great to have those managers get up there and say, ‘This is my goal,’” Brown said.

George David, president of UCG’s CCMI communications management division, said, “It’s awfully easy — with fire after fire, opportunity after opportunity, new launch after new launch — not to step back once a year and take a look at where this is all leading us.”

David said the meetings allow his employees to focus on the company’s objectives and to get a sense of perspective. “It all boils down to my saying, ‘I want everybody to know the opportunities, goals and problems we face this year,’” he said. “It’s a very good process to do that.”

The CCMI president said the annual meeting also is a good opportunity for him to allow one or two key high-performers of the year to be part of the program so that those hard-chargers have the chance to “show their stuff” to any of the UCG partners attending the meeting.

David also has invited in key customers and enterprise partners to have the staff learn more about how his division’s products benefit those people. One such invitee, he said, was MCI-Worldcom, which, even though going through bankruptcy, was able to give CCMI staff its perspective on what it expected from CCMI products.

The presidents, although given guidelines from UCG’s partners on how to conduct the kickoffs, have a lot of leeway in the specifics. For example, David is not in favor of having each work team leader (marketing, editorial, etc.) give a presentation at each kickoff. He does most of the presentation himself because he believes that giving each of his managers their “five minutes of fame” can become more of a show-and-tell, and can easily get off the point of the meeting.

His kickoffs usually consist of himself, one high-performer presenter, a guest speaker and a UCG partner. The meetings last about three hours, with one of those being a lunch.

David Penzias, president of UCG’s Wellsley Information Service (WIS) in Boston, has his key managers give presentations at his kickoffs.

“It gives all your employees the chance to hear it all at once,” he said. “It’s powerful when you tell them all at once.”

Penzias, who owned WIS before selling to UCG about five years ago, said the process forces him to be more reflective. “It takes a discipline to get it all ready,” he said. “I have to clarify my own goals, opportunities and challenges to be able to present it to my employees.”

The process helps build morale and is a good retention tool, even when you’ve had a bad year, Penzias believes. “Even if things haven’t been what you’d like, you might as well share it with your employees,” he said. “At the same time you can address how you plan to overcome those shortcomings in the coming year.”

Penzias encourages any publisher with more than a half-dozen or so employees to hold such meetings. “I was skeptical about it when UCG first set up the meetings,” he said. “They sounded kinda’ hokey. But they work. I wish I had done this when I owned WIS.”

It’s also important to Penzias to make the meetings fun. He recognizes outstanding employees with special awards and interjects humor into the program as ways to keep the meetings from being “all business.”

Glynn Willett, president of UCG’s ATX tax software development unit, said he tries to do something different with his kickoff every year. He had been doing kickoffs at ATX for about six years as owner of the company before UCG acquired it in 2002. He provides yearly kickoff t-shirts for his staff, held a “Mountain Man Challenge” (in which employees challenged him in a race up two “substantial mountains” near the company’s office in Caribou, ME) for two years running and last year brought in a former preacher to get the staff “fired up.”

Perhaps the most important aspect of the kickoffs for Willett is that they force him to focus his message for the coming year. “Having a kickoff makes that happen in a hurry,” he said. “It’s much different from making a presentation of your goals and objectives in a report to a board. You have to hone the message so that the person sitting there answering the phone all day gets it.”

UCG says the kickoffs achieve these important objectives:

 Build buy-in.  Establish a sense of purpose and the division’s identity.

 Celebrate and recognize successes — individual and group.  Build team.

 Set an agenda and strike themes for the year ahead.  Reinforce cultural values.

 Motivate, rally, build energy and excitement for the coming year.  Have fun.

 Report on the past year, both good and bad.

 Allow presidents to demonstrate leadership, reveal their own humanity.

 Remind everyone of their connection to UCG.

Reprinted with permission of Hotline, published by the Newsletter & Electronic Publishers Association, 1501 Wilson Blvd., Suite 509, Arlington, VA 22209-2403 

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By Fred Goss
The Newsletter on Newsletters
June 15, 2003

"It's very important to us. Editorial is the heart of our company," said UCG partner Dan Brown about his pride in the company's unprecedented feat in winning nine awards this year in the Foundation's "excellence in newsletter journalism" competition.

The 2003 awards continued UCG's streak of being in the winners' circle for the 24th consecutive year, a record matched by no other publisher. Over the years, UCG has earned about 70 total awards in the competition.

Obviously, UCG's reporters and editors produce high quality newsletter journalism and their staff includes a number of veterans who have been recognized numerous times in the competition.

But there's more to UCG's success in the competition. They like winning the awards — it's important to the company and the partners, Ed Peskowitz and Bruce Levenson in addition to Brown. As an example, they feature their awards in their recruiting efforts. On the company website the record of awards is featured as Point One in a section called "7 Reasons to Work for UCG." Award certificates are displayed all over the offices.

Beyond creating a corporate culture in which these awards are important, UCG takes a number of steps in an annual process to facilitate success.

They operate their own annual in-house editorial awards competition. Reporters and editors are encouraged to submit their best work in categories that mirror NEPA's.

They offer cash prizes to the winners (and did so before NEPA did that to their First Place awards), recognizing that there are other motivations for working reporters beyond gaining another certificate for the company ego wall.

They use outside judges to evaluate their awards — newsletter and newspaper journalists and academics who may well make the same sort of judgments as the NEPA judging panels.

The UCG in-house winners are recognized with fanfare — this year at a banquet held at a local country club, where the company celebrated their reporters' and editors' achievements.

The articles which are selected as the winners in the in-house competition are the ones entered in the NEPA competition. The UCG package of entries is annually one of the larger ones in the competition. As they say in the ads for lottery drawings, "You can't win if you're not in."

A key additional point. They work very hard on the housekeeping details that accompany each entry. First, with the in-house competition, they ensure entries are in the right categories (more often than you may think, award judges hear themselves saying, "Why do we have this? It ought to be in Category B" and lay it aside).

The nominating letters that accompany each entry explain in well-written detail why the story or series in question was important, how hard the reporter worked to get the details, if it was an exclusive, and any results from the publication that they are aware of.

The nominating cover letter is important. Probably the most famous story ever recognized by NEPA was the year Beverage Digest won the Best Single Story award for its scoop announcing the "New Coke" while the company was still keeping it secret. It was obvious to the judges why this was a big story — as were this year's winners who broke the Georgia crematory and World-com scandals.

However, in the specialized world of newsletter journalism, it is more often than not much less "obvious": an outside judge has to be told why the story he or her has in hand is an important one to the newsletter's readers.

The nomination letter here carries the ball. Explicitly tell the judges the impact of the entry.

In the 35 years since I wrote my first newsletter article — I covered the Poor People's Park for Capitol Publications' Economic Opportunity Report — I have noticed that editors, especially at large companies, tend to feel management sees them as "interchangeable parts," while the glamour boys and girls in marketing drive the company and get the glory.

Firms making efforts like UCG go a long way to derail that type of thinking and help the editorial department believe it's really a key part of the team.

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