January 7, 2000 (Orange County, CA) -- Digital Media Online (http://www.digitalmedianet.com), the leading developer of B2B vertical online communities for the digital media market today announced the acquisition of The WWUG (www.wwug.com), the leading user group community for the digital media market. The WWUG will continue to be directed by its founder Ron Lindeboom, who has joined Digital Media Online as Vice President of World Wide User Group Communities.

"Digital Media Online and the WWUG have always shared a common mission," said Lou Wallace, CEO of Digital Media Online. "Our goals are to provide the daily information resources needed by professional users of digital media products to help them succeed at their jobs. Having a user advocate with the stature of Ron Lindeboom join us underscores our commitment to developing a strong community where professionals can come to both get help and offer assistance to others."

WWUG.com was created in 1995 during the "first wave" of the digital video revolution; users were scrambling to learn many new tools at once just to keep ahead of the rapidly changing paradigm shift. So to aid in the exchange of ideas among digital professionals, this site was developed as a community resource. Today it serves as a worldwide resource to tens of thousands of professional media users, delivering nearly 500,000 pages of information each month.

"During the coming weeks we will re-launch WWUG.com with an improved design while maintaining the ease of use and community feel that has made the WWUG so successful," said Ron Lindeboom, Vice President of World Wide User Group Communities. "Now that WWUG.com is part of the Digital Media Net family, we will use our resources to enhance and expand both the quality and quantity of user communities. After looking at all possibilities and seeing what DMO was doing on the Net, it became obvious that this was the direction that the WWUG needed to take to better serve and expand our offerings to our members."

Digital Media Net communities are organized into distinct vertical market segments, including streaming media, digital video, animation, special effects, desktop publishing, imaging and design, digital audio, CAD, workstations, broadcast and post production and game development.

Each channel offers up-to-the-minute editorial content, and is updated at least once each business day. DigitalMediaNet.com resources include breaking technology and product news, techniques, white papers, interactive product guides, classified, job and resume listings and extensive examples of digital art, animations and video.

Digital Media Online, 1508 Brookhollow Dr., Suite 360, Santa Ana, CA 92705
Phone: (714) 424-6100; fax: (714) 424-6101.
Web Site: http://www.digitalmedianet.com