MINDEN, Nev., June 9, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Kingdom Ventures, Inc. (OTCBB:KDMV), a rapidly growing church development company, announced today it has signed an agreement with the principal shareholders of Keener Communications Group, Inc. (KCG) to acquire nationwide rights to publish Christian Times -- the largest regional Christian newspaper chain. Christian Times currently has a monthly circulation of over 280,000 copies through more than 6,000 churches and Christian retail outlets. It is an eight-time award winner with the Evangelical Press Association and a two-time Angel Award winner. Christian Times is also widely recognized as one of the leading Christian newspapers nationwide.
According to the agreement, KCG has granted Kingdom Ventures an exclusive trade name and trademark license for all markets where Christian Times is not yet published. Kingdom Ventures has an option to acquire all existing Christian Times publications within 36 months. Furthermore, Kingdom Ventures will also take over the existing Christian Times edition in Central Valley, California.
The acquisition strengthens Kingdom Ventures' position in the Christian media market. It further solidifies Kingdom's position as the fastest growing publicly traded Christian media company in the country. Kingdom Ventures' 280% annual revenue growth rate is well above Salem Communications (Nasdaq:SALM), Integrity Media (Nasdaq:ITGR) and Thomas Nelson (NYSE:TNM).
"We believe the country's 150+ million Christians represent the largest untapped affinity group in the U.S. We have recently launched our Christian Merchants initiative aimed to provide a direct marketing channel to tens of millions of active church members controlling hundreds of billions of dollars in annual spending. Our media properties will be instrumental in making this happen. Christian Times could give us a powerful geographical reach all around the country as we start entering new geographical markets," said Gene Jackson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Kingdom Ventures, Inc.
Kingdom Ventures helps faith-based organizations streamline their operations, raise additional money through various fund-raising activities or simply provide technological solutions that transform small and medium-sized churches into state-of-the-art presentation centers. The company helps churches focus on their core mission -- reaching people for God -- by focusing on its core business: helping churches and their people grow.
There are approximately 400,000 Protestant churches in the U.S. alone. 94% of them have fewer than 1,000 active members, and therefore limited financial resources to effectively manage the business side of their operations. Christian organizations' total budgets are measured in billions of dollars. 89% of American households give to charities an average of $1,600+ a year, and religious organizations receive 60% of it. In addition, religious and inspirational products are selling at a pace of $5.6 billion annually (source: Christian Retailing Magazine).
Within less than three years, Kingdom Ventures has built a distribution network for Christian products, consisting of 2,100+ retail stores; 1,200 Christian bookstores and 900 gift stores. It has also established strong business relationships with hundreds of Christian organizations and performed over 750 fundraising events -- helping churches and other Christian organizations grow.
For more information on Kingdom Ventures, visit http://www.kdmvcorp.com.
To sign up for shareholder alerts, visit http://www.kdmvcorp.com/ir_shareholderalerts.htm.
To learn more about Christian Times, visit www.christiantimes.com
All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release are "forward-looking statements." The forward-looking statements, including statements about the company's future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, and all other forward-looking statements (i.e., future operational results and sales) are subject to assumptions and beliefs based on current information known to the company and factors that are subject to uncertainties, risk and other influences, which are outside the company's control, and may yield results differing materially from those anticipated.