Safari Books Online Adds New "Short Cuts" Service

SEBASTOPOL, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- November 1, 2006 -- Safari® Books Online, a joint venture of O'Reilly Media Inc. and Pearson Technology Group, today announced the availability of Short Cuts -- a series of short documents covering technologies that are either too early in their life cycle or too narrowly focused to become the subject of a full-length book. As a result, Safari Books Online subscribers now have access to even more timely and complete coverage of emerging technologies than was previously possible with books. Safari Books Online's reference resources currently include more than 4,000 books from leading technical and business publishers O'Reilly Media, Pearson Technology Group, and others.

Short Cuts are produced by experienced authors who use the medium to provide concise, focused coverage of a topic. Like the books available through Safari Books Online, Short Cuts are editorially vetted and held up to publishing industry standards. Usually fewer than 100 pages, Short Cuts represent a dynamic authoring model with fresh and up-to-date information, offered in a timeframe and format appropriate to the field.

"The introduction of Short Cuts builds on an emerging trend here at Safari Books Online to move our service beyond books. We are committed to providing content that is timely and appropriate for our users. We realize this kind of material often doesn't make it into a printed book as quickly as our users need to learn about it. That's why Safari Books Online is embracing new formats like Short Cuts and Rough Cuts -- products custom designed for the online medium," said Debra Woods, vice president of marketing for Safari Books Online.

Launched in February, the Rough Cuts service exemplifies Safari Books Online's effort to bring crucial and pre-publication information to its subscribers. Rough Cuts are evolving manuscripts that encourage reader feedback as they undergo the publication process. The Rough Cuts service features access to books in progress about hot topics that professionals need to learn now, not after the several months required for a book to go through editing and other processes in preparation for formal publication.

Access to Short Cuts will be included at no additional cost for Safari Library subscribers. For Safari Bookshelf users, most Short Cuts will take up one half of a bookshelf slot. To see the lists of current Short Cuts available from participating publishers, visit http://my.safaribooksonline.com/home.

About Safari Books Online

Safari Books Online (http://safaribooksonline.com) is a joint venture of O'Reilly Media Inc. and Pearson Technology Group. Safari's flagship service, Safari Library, is the premier electronic reference library for programmers, IT and web designers. Unlike an online bookstore, Safari is a fully searchable database of the electronic versions of books from O'Reilly and Pearson's many imprints: Addison-Wesley Professional, Adobe Press, Cisco Press, New Riders, Peachpit Press, Prentice Hall Professional, Sun Microsystems Press, Que, and Sams. Safari's portfolio includes additional electronic reference libraries: Safari HelpDesk Online for enterprise knowledge workers, Safari Business Books Online for business professionals and Safari Enterprise Library for enterprise licenses.

Contact Information: Media Contact: Emily Allen Graham & Associates 415-986-7212 eallen@graham-associates.com