Fabulous Fragrances.Info Wins Stevie Award in Technological Innovator Category

At the Stevie Awards, "the business world's own Oscars," author Jan Moran wins for Technology Innovator, for Fabulous Fragrances.Info program, now featured on Newscom.com, and designed for editors and retailers.

Los Angeles, CA Novemeber 1, 2004 -- Jan Moran of Crescent House Publishing was named Technological Innovator of the Year for the new program, FABULOUS FRAGRANCES.INFO, in The 2004 Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs in New York. The program, available through http://www.fabulousfragrances.com, is designed for retailers, editors, and consumers, and helps guide people through the maze of more than 4,000 fragrances and perfumes on the market today. Newscom.com, a Tribune Media-Knight Ridder joint venture, is a leader in providing this new technology content to editors via http://www.newscom.com.

The Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs, http://www.stevieawards.com/women, is a national awards competition recognizing the accomplishments of women small business owners in the United States. The awards are produced by the creators of the prestigious American Business Awards, hailed as "the business world's own Oscars" by the New York Post (September 22, 2002) and exclusively sponsored by Advanta.

Winners were announced on Friday, October 22 at a gala ceremony at the Marriott Marquis in New York City's Times Square. The masters of ceremonies were Bill Rancic, winner of the hit television show "The Apprentice" and spokesperson for Advanta, the exclusive sponsor of the awards, and Rhonda Schaffler, the New York Stock Exchange Senior Correspondent for CNNfn and CNN Business News.

A total of 18 Stevie Awards were presented in categories ranging from Best Entrepreneur, Best Young Entrepreneur, Best New Product and Mentor of the Year. More than 600 nominations from small companies in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration.

"It's an honor to be recognized among such esteemed finalists, Moran says. Her FABULOUS FRAGRANCES.INFO is an online marketing and research tool based on her bestselling Fabulous Fragrances book series. The new program, the first of its kind for retailers, features detailed data, images, and promotional tools for about 4,000 fragrances. The database program is a joint venture of two of the world's foremost authors on fragrance, Jan Moran and Michael Edwards. Access is via the web is on http://www.fabulousfragrances.info.

"We supply sales tools for online and brick-and-mortar retailers," Moran explains. "For each fragrance, we offer a fragrance review and history, bottle image, fragrance pronunciation, house, character, country, theme, and debut year. My co-creator, the FiFi Award-winning author Michael Edwards, contributes his copyrighted fragrance family classifications, which have become an industry standard. In addition, we supply ideas for promotional occasions and seasonal suggestions, as well as designer quotes, awards, and famous patrons. Retailers may use this information to build marketing campaigns, train sales consultants, and research brands."

Newscom.com, a Tribune Media Services and Knight Ridder joint venture, distributes select fragrance content from Fabulous Fragrances.Info for newspaper and magazine editorial use, along with other Crescent House Publishing columns and articles under the FabStyle News banner, available on http://www.newscom.com.

Advanta Corp. (NASDAQ: ADVNB; ADVNA) is the exclusive sponsor of The 2004 Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs, and has been committed to supporting the success of women in business for over 50 years. Founded as Teachers' Service Organization, originally providing need-based loans to teachers mostly women at a time when banks often did not, Advanta is now one of the nation's largest issuers of MasterCard business credit cards to America;s small businesses through its subsidiary Advanta Bank Corp.

"The winners of the Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs reflect the vital and exciting role that women small business owners play in todays economy," said Dennis Alter, Chairman and CEO of Advanta. "Helping women entrepreneurs build their business is a longtime goal of Advanta's. Thats why we're extremely proud to honor these outstanding winners."

The Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs are governed by a board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors that features many leading women entrepreneurs and figures in American business, including Carrie Fitzmaurice, Publisher for Entrepreneur Media Inc.; Dr. Lisa Krinsky, Chairman & President for SFBC International; and Dr. Betty Spence, President of The National Association for Female Executives.

"Women small business owners are at the forefront of business innovation, but they rarely get the acclaim they deserve," said Michael Gallagher, President and Founder of The Stevie Awards. "The Stevie Awards are an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the extraordinary women who are re-inventing American business."

The elegant Stevie trophy was designed by R. S. Owens, the same company that makes the Oscar and the Emmy. Details about The Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs and the full list of Winners are available at http://www.stevieawards.com/women.

About Fabulous Fragrances.Info:
The Fabulous Fragrances.Info program is a comprehensive online fragrance research and marketing tool capable of performing complex, multi-level searches. For about US$79 per month, subscribers gain access to data on thousands of fragrances, updated weekly. In addition, fragrance descriptions and images may be reproduced for an additional licensing fee.

Who is licensing content? "Online retailers, specialty perfume shops, department stores, and bridal registries," Moran says. "Our file is read into the client's system, such as those offered by Dell: touch-screen information kiosks, hand-held customer service devices, and point-of-purchase Internet-enabled hardware." Sephora has implemented the first consumer touch-screen system in New York. "We are also feeding select content to news services, such as Newscom."

Silicon Valley content specialist, Elizabeth Karolczak, represents the new program, which can be previewed at http://www.electroniccontent.com/fabfrag.cfm. Karolczak is the President of OSKAR Consulting, a global content licensing agency active since 1991. Other beauty content is also available from Crescent House Publishing's FabStyle News service, including syndicated columns and articles.

Jan Moran is a Harvard Business School graduate, writer and former management consultant. Since 1994, her Fabulous Fragrance books have been sold in Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Marshall Field, Dayton's, Dillards, Amazon, and all major book chains. Gale Hayman and Bijan have written forewords to the books.

For more information, visit http://www.fabulousfragrances.com. Press images and details: http://www.fabulousfragrances.com/presskit_main.html. Fabulous Fragrances II book, ISBN: 0-9639065-4-2, $29.95.

About The Stevie Awards:
Hailed as "the business worlds own Oscars" by the New York Post (September 22, 2002), Stevie Awards are conferred in three programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, and The Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs. Honoring companies of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at http://www.stevieawards.com.

Contact Information:
Anne Hammons
Crescent House Publishing
Phone 760-775-9151
http://www.fabulousfragrances.com

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