News

September 16, 2011

Mountain News Corporation Acquires SkiReport.com Providing Expanded Online and Mobile Reach

Media Contact: Kelly Ladyga, (303) 404-1862, kladyga@vailresorts.com

Mountain News Corporation Acquires SkiReport.com Providing Expanded Online and Mobile Reach

BROOMFIELD, Colo. – Sep. 13, 2011 – Mountain News Corporation, publisher of OnTheSnow, the most visited snowsports website in the world, is expanding with today’s acquisition of SkiReport.com, the second most visited ski report website in North America.

The SkiReport website will be merged with the OnTheSnow website for the winter 2011-2012 season, which will augment OnTheSnow’s 9.6 million annual unique visitors to more than 12 million. The acquisition not only solidifies Mountain News Corporation’s role as the leader in online snowsports content but also increases its installed mobile application base in North America from 85,000 to 945,000, a 10- times increase.

The SkiReport mobile platform consists of a highly acclaimed iPhone and Android application that has generated 860,000 downloads and an estimated 54 million in screen impressions fo last ski and snowboard season. According to Chad Dyer, global managing director of Mountain News Corporation, the SkiReport app has a very unique and powerful feature that allows skiers and snowboarders to provide firsthand ski and snow reports and has emerged as the industry leader in user-generated snow reporting.

“This acquisition positions us well to take advantage of the strong growth we are seeing in mobile platforms around the world,” said Dyer. “The SkiReport mobile user base coupled with our powerful online portal instantly makes OnTheSnow the market share leader in reaching skiers and snowboarders through all channels in North America, creating both a terrific user experience and an excellent opportunity for our advertising partners.”

The SkiReport mobile app will become the default application for OnTheSnow and Dyer plans to integrate user-generated snow reports into OnTheSnow’s web site for this winter season. Going forward Mountain News will be providing the snow reports for the SkiReport mobile

app, replacing the reports provided by SnoCountry Mountain Reports.

For more information, visit www.OnTheSnow.com or www.SkiReport.com.

About OnTheSnow.com and Mountain News Corporation

OnTheSnow is operated by Mountain News Corporation (MNC), a subsidiary of Vail Resorts. The site is visited by over 9.6 million unique skiers and snowboarders a year, and is published in 14 countries world-wide. The company also provides snow reports to more than 1,500 web sites throughout the world, including approximately 400 news media websites. The Company’s pre-produced radio snow reports are delivered to affiliate stations in 17 radio networks and 800 stations across the U.S.

About Vail Resorts

Vail Resorts, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is the leading mountain resort operator in the United States. The Company’s subsidiaries operate the mountain resort properties of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone mountain resorts in Colorado, and Heavenly Mountain Resort and Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada, and the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The Company’s subsidiary, RockResorts, a luxury resort hotel company, manages casually elegant properties across the United States and in the Caribbean. Vail Resorts Development Company is the real estate planning, development and construction subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc. Vail Resorts is a publicly held company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MTN). The Vail Resorts company website is www.vailresorts.com and the consumer website is www.snow.com.

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August 26, 2011

Get a Sneak Peak of the New OnTheSnow Site

OnTheSnow, the world’s largest web portal for snow enthusiasts, has released a video-based sneak peak of the new OnTheSnow site design, which launches later this month. If you want a quick overview of the design, functionality or editorial and advertising opportunities of the new platform, take a few minutes to watch this video.

For more information, please contact sales@mountainnews.com

August 26, 2011

OnTheSnow Becomes Official Ski and Snowboard Content Partner of The Weather Channel

ORINDA, CA. – August 19, 2011 – OnTheSnow, the most-visited snow sports website in the world, today announced an expanded partnership with The Weather Channel, the industry leader in providing accurate weather information across multiple channels. OnTheSnow will become the official provider of snow reporting and resort information for The Weather Channel, weather.com, The Weather Channel Mobile, and Desktop Weather.

Beginning this next 2011-2012 winter season, The Weather Channel television audience, website visitors and mobile application users will have access to OnTheSnow.com daily snow reporting as well as resort profiles and on-mountain cameras for more than 1,500 ski resorts around the world.

“Mountain News has been a partner of The Weather Channel for the last five years and has a solid track record of delivering high quality ski conditions information and content,” said Jim Anderson, Director of Weather Asset Management at The Weather Channel. “At OnTheSnow.com we pride ourselves on providing accurate and timely information on all things skiing and snowboarding around the world,” said Chad Dyer, global managing director of Mountain News Corporation. “We’re excited to expand our relationship with The Weather Channel and add another channel to help ski and snowboard enthusiasts get the information they need when they want it.”

About OnTheSnow.com and Mountain News Corporation
OnTheSnow is operated by Mountain News Corporation (MNC). MNC, is the top provider of snow reports to more than 1,500 web sites throughout the world, including approximately 400 news media websites. The Company’s pre-produced radio snow reports are delivered to affiliate stations in 17 radio networks and 800 stations across the U.S. In addition to its snow reports and website, OnTheSnow.com publishes and delivers a weekly e-mail newsletter to its database of more than 300,000 subscribers worldwide. MNC also operates MountainGetaway.com, the year-round headquarters for information regarding popular mountain resort communities and regions in the summer months.

About The Weather Channel Companies

The Weather Channel companies (TWCC) are made up of The Weather Channel® television network, The Weather Channel digital properties, and WSI. The Weather Channel is based in Atlanta and is seen in more than 100 million U.S. households. TWCC also operates Weatherscan®, a 24-hour all-local weather network; The Weather Channel Radio Network; and The Weather Channel HD. The digital properties of TWCC, which include the weather.com® site, The Weather Channel Desktop and The Weather Channel Mobile, reach more than 40 million monthly unique users, are the most popular source of online weather news and information, and offer the second most popular mobile application on all smart phones. WSI, headquartered in Andover, MA, primarily provides business-to-business weather services, particularly for the media, aviation, marine and energy sectors. TWCC is owned by a consortium made up of NBC Universal and the private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. For more information, visit www.weather.com/press

Media Contacts:
Chad Dyer
Mountain News Corporation
925-254-4456 ext. 116
dyer@mountainnews.com

April 19, 2011

Mountain News Corporation Names Patrick Crawford Director of Content

ORINDA, Calif. – Mountain News Corporation today announced the appointment of Patrick Crawford as director of content for the company’s global multi-media channels, including OnTheSnow.com, MountainGetaway.com, online and radio snow reports and mobile and iPad applications. Crawford will start in the newly created content position at Mountain News on April 29, 2011, based in the company’s Colorado office.

“The OnTheSnow global web platform specializes in reaching skiers and snowboarders as they plan their holiday, prepare for their trip and interact online with the snow sports lifestyle. Patrick’s decade of experience communicating to skiers and snowboarders, developing premium online content, and creating a passionate online community of skiers and snowboarders prepares him well for overseeing our global content initiatives,” said Chad Dyer, global managing director of Mountain News Corporation.

Crawford joins Mountain News Corporation from Storm Mountain Publishing in Niwot, Colo., where he helped found Freeskier magazine in 1998, and served most recently as editorial and online director for Freeskier and Snowboard magazines and Freeskier.com and Snowboardmag.com. There he was responsible for overseeing all aspects of the editorial process for the company’s media products. He led all web development and site enhancement to Freeskier.com and Snowboardmag.com, helping to grow the sites into the leading digital outlets for the respective industries and building snow sports’ largest social media audience. Crawford also managed the company’s custom publishing efforts, such as Whistler’s WB Magazine, K2 FreeSkisForLife, the Local Lange Girl Competition, user-generated content sites for Coors, SanDisk, Salomon and more.
Crawford holds a master’s in mass communications and a bachelor’s in English from the University of Colorado at Boulder. An avid skier, Crawford and his wife and two kids live in Longmont, Colo.

February 04, 2011

OnTheSnow.com Ranked as Most Popular Website for Skiers and Snowboarders for the 6th Consecutive Year

ORINDA, Calif. – Feb. 03, 2011 – OnTheSnow today announced it once again ranks as the most visited snow sports website in the world according to a January Nielsen/Net Rankings audit. OnTheSnow’s traffic grew by more then one million visitors (52 percent) from January 2010, reaching more then 3.4 million unique visitors in January 2011.

The OnTheSnow web portal combines worldwide snow condition reports with news, features, guides, resort overviews and a broad community of bloggers, photographers, and videographers. Data from Hitwise Competitive Intelligence indicates the site increased its market share in the snow sports sector, which includes all sites related to winter activities and products, by six points in January 2011, bringing total share to more than 14 percent. OnTheSnow remained the dominate site among 13 of the most visited snow sports portals in that group, capturing 73 percent of all visits as measured by Hitwise.
“These latest figures validate how OnTheSnow remains the best and most popular resource for skiers and snowboarders on the Web,” said Chad Dyer, global managing director for Mountain News Corporation, which operates OnTheSnow. “Every year, we see more people go online to plan their trips to the top resorts around the world, learn about gear, check conditions, and learn from peers and experts about a sport they love. 2010 ended as our best yet, and our January audit figures demonstrate an increasing demand for the tools and information we provide our users.”

OnTheSnow’s locally-based editors and reporters produce more than 3,500 news articles each winter season. The website carries regularly updated snow condition reports and on-mountain webcams from some 2,000 resorts across the globe. New offerings for 2010, including a Gear Guide app for iPhone and iPad, and the addition of a new Snow Report app for the Google Chrome Web Store, drove increases in traffic, and overall monthly visits from mobile devices increased 146 percent year-over-year to more than 350,000. Visits to the expanded gear section, which now includes expert reviews and a gear guide that encourages users to browse and compare ski and snowboard equipment, grew by 70 percent to 400,000.

The site’s redesigned photo and video gallery featuring a real-time stream of user content from around the world drew more visitors, as well, reporting 325,000 unique viewers in January. Broadened partnerships with Google and Yahoo! also helped fuel growth by integrating OnTheSnow content in products like Yahoo! Local News and Google Instant Results.

OnTheSnow’s innovation will continue in 2011 as the site partners with industry experts to augment current editorial offerings. Krista Crabtree, former women’s ski test director for SKI and current apparel and gear editor for PEAKS magazine, will join the OnTheSnow team to create editorial reviews on more than 160 pairs of skis and 25 pairs of boots for the 2011/2012 season, significantly expanding current content. Meteorologist and snow expert, Joel Gratz, is also partnering with OnTheSnow to produce a series of videos and articles explaining weather topics like forecasting, snow water content and satellite imagery.

For more information please visit www.OnTheSnow.com.

About OnTheSnow.com and Mountain News Corporation
OnTheSnow is operated by Mountain News Corporation (MNC). MNC, a subsidiary of Vail Resorts, is the top provider of snow reports to more than 1,500 web sites throughout the world, including approximately 400 news media websites. The Company’s pre-produced radio snow reports are delivered to affiliate stations in 17 radio networks and 800 stations across the country. In addition to their snow reports and website, OnTheSnow.com publishes and delivers a weekly e-mail newsletter to its database of more than 250,000 subscribers worldwide. MNC also operates MountainGetaway.com, the year-round headquarters for information regarding popular mountain resort communities and regions in the summer months.

October 11, 2010

OnTheSnow Announces New Site Features and Mobile Applications

ORINDA, Calif. – Oct. 11, 2010 – OnTheSnow, the most visited snow sports website in the world, today announced several new website enhancements and mobile applications designed to give skiers and snowboarders more comprehensive and accessible information on skiing and riding, including a new iPhone Gear Guide application, free snow reporting mobile applications, a new iPad application, and a new resort photo and video section on the website. The Company also announced the launch of new Brazilian and Russian OnTheSnow websites and the opening of its European headquarters in Innsbruck, Austria.

“OnTheSnow is designed to be the source for all information that skiers and snowboarders need,” said Chad Dyer, global managing director, Mountain News Corporation, which operates OnTheSnow. “The new website features and mobile applications we are launching now and throughout the remainder of 2010 will help skiers and snowboarders easily access the information they are looking for this winter season, including gear reviews, snow reports, resort photos and videos, and other information to help them plan their vacation.”

iPhone Gear Guide Application

Available in Apple’s iTunes store is OnTheSnow’s free iPhone Gear Guide application that helps skiers and riders choose the best gear. It is the first iPhone application dedicated to selecting gear for skiing and riding, and is one of the first gear guides of any

kind for the iPhone. Just in time for the upcoming ski season, the application provides detailed information on more than 230 skis, snowboards, ski boots, snowboard boots and snowboard bindings and includes “Top Picks” by experts selected by OnTheSnow. The free application allows users to filter their selection by gender, sport, ability level and terrain and includes an innovative feature that lets users compare their favorite selections. Users can also watch OnTheSnow gear videos which review all of the Top Picks and a selection of Adventure Series ski videos. The application also introduces “Snowpedia,” a glossary of standard terms used in selecting gear.

Free Snow Report iPhone and Droid Application

OnTheSnow announced that it will re-launch its iPhone snow reporting application, which will be free to all users (previous price with $1.99) and will be releasing free Android and Blackberry snow reporting applications. The applications will give skiers and snowboarders comprehensive snow reports from over 2,000 resorts around the world. OnTheSnow is the dominant worldwide source for snow reports, providing information for more news media outlets than any other company in the world. All of the applications will be available in November 2010.

New iPad Application

OnTheSnow will launch an iPad snow reporting application that will contain the same robust content featured on the OnTheSnow website and in the mobile applications, but with a completely new design tailored to the unique features of the iPad. This will be the first snow reporting application designed specifically for the iPad and will be available in December 2010.

New, Expanded Ski Resort Photo and Video Section

In December 2010, OnTheSnow will launch a redesigned and expanded photo and video gallery on the OnTheSnow website. The new multi-media section will include “current” photos and videos submitted from ski resorts around the world and will be easily searchable by resort, region, type of photo or video and more. The editors of OnTheSnow will select the “Top Ten” photos and videos of the week and all of the content will allow users to provide their own ratings. The new media gallery will give OnTheSnow visitors a visual perspective of what’s happening “real time” in skiing and riding at more than 2,000 resorts across the globe.

New Brazilian and Russian OnTheSnow Websites

OnTheSnow will launch new websites for the Brazilian and Russian markets this month. The content for both sites will focus on providing the most relevant travel information for ski resorts around the world, but will be localized to the unique interests and needs within each market. The sites will offer snow reports for more than 2,000 ski and worldwide, along with live resort web cams, video, resort information and news, vacation packages and deals, user-generated resort reviews and a comprehensive ski and snowboard gear guide, all updated regularly by a team of editors within each market. The addition of the Brazilian and Russian websites further enhances OnTheSnow’s global reach – it already has websites in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Europe (U.K., Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, France, Sweden, Italy and Benelux) and the South Pacific (Australia and New Zealand).

New European Headquarters

This week, Mountain News announced the opening of its European headquarters in Innsbruck, Austria, complementing its existing operations in London. “While we will continue to keep an advertising sales and editorial office in the UK, the establishment of our European headquarters in Innsbruck allows us to continue to expand our European snow sports content, and better serve our clients throughout the Alps” said Dr. Eduardo Santander, Europe managing director for Mountain News.

For more information please visit www.OnTheSnow.com.

About OnTheSnow.com and Mountain News Corporation

OnTheSnow is operated by Mountain News Corporation (MNC). MNC, a subsidiary of Vail Resorts, is the top provider of snow reports to more than 1,500 web sites throughout the world, including approximately 400 news media websites. The Company’s pre-produced radio snow reports are delivered to affiliate stations in 17 radio networks and 800 stations across the country. In addition to their snow reports and website, OnTheSnow.com publishes and delivers a weekly e-mail newsletter to its database of more than 250,000 subscribers worldwide. MNC also operates MountainGetaway.com, the year-round headquarters for information regarding popular mountain resort communities and regions in the summer months.

July 12, 2010

New Audit Shows OnTheSnow Newsletter Reaches 193,031 Skiers, Riders

A newly released audit of the OnTheSnow e-mail newsletter shows circulation in March 2010 reached 193,031 skiers and snowboarders who registered to receive the free newsletter.

BPA Worldwide, a global industry resource for verified audience data, conducted the independent audit. The audits were conducted for issues e-mailed to opt-in readers March 4, 11, and 18, 2010.

“The OnTheSnow e-mail newsletter saw a year-over-year increase in circulation as subscribers grew by 7.63 percent from 181,239 in March 2009. Measured open rates and clicks to advertisers also were up for the same period,” said Mountain News Global Managing Director Chad Dyer.

The BPA Audit further reported the OnTheSnow database is extremely accurate with only .01 percent of emails undelivered during the audit period.

“This is the result of a very stringent list hygiene procedure where undelivered names are dropped from the list after three consecutive unsuccessful attempts to deliver,” Dyer said.

May 28, 2010

Expanded Content Is Goal Of OnTheSnow.com’s New Owners

Do you like visiting OnTheSnow.com now? Just wait ’til winter. Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN), parent company of five ski resorts, several luxury hotel properties and other companies, has purchased Mountain News Corp., parent company of this Web site.

“Our acquisition of Mountain News Corp. is a reflection of our commitment to the importance of emerging digital mediums for the entire snow sports industry and our desire to be an industry leader in that effort,” said Rob Katz, chairman and CEO of Vail Resorts. “We intend to invest in the development of new content and digital applications, building on the great strengths and talent of everyone at MNC.”

OnTheSnow.com is the most visited winter sports Web portal in the world with 13 global versions in seven languages. A Nielsen audit this past winter showed the site was visited by 2.2 million unique monthly visitors.

“We are pleased to be part of the Vail Resorts group of companies and have their complete assurance that we will continue to operate the news, content, and advertising divisions of Mountain News just as we always have – independent of any influence,” said Craig Altschul, global editor-in-chief.

Expanded news coverage and content are being developed now and will be ready for the new season.

Details of the protocol in both advertising and editorial polices in the relationship between Mountain News and Vail Resorts is available here.

June 03, 2009

OnTheSnow.com Presents 2009 Visitors Choice Awards

Orinda, Calif.: Big Sky Resort, Mont., has been named North America’s favorite ski resort by visitors to OnTheSnow.com, the most-visited snow sports portal in the world. The Web site, which attracts a Nielsen-audited 1.6 million unique monthly visitors during the winter, offers its visitors the opportunity to write reviews of all resorts in North America.

June 02, 2009

Nielsen Audit Confirms OnTheSnow.Com Remains Dominant Web Portal

OnTheSnow.com once again has confirmed its dominance as the number one most visited snow sports Web site, proving skiers and snowboarders remain passionate about their sport even during the current economic malaise.