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Americans Respond in Droves to Reporter's Riveting Account of Her 82 Days of Captivity in Iraq BOSTON and SAN DIEGO, Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Christian Science Monitor, an international daily newspaper founded in 1908, and WebSideStory, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSSI), a leading provider of digital marketing and analytics solutions, today announced that the newspaper's 11-part, multimedia series, "Hostage: The Jill Carroll Story," is generating record visitor traffic levels at its web site, http://www.csmonitor.com/. When the series went fully live on Mon., Aug. 14th, more than 450,000 unique visitors flooded the site during the next 24 hours, making it one of the top-ranked newspaper web sites in the country for that period. According to The Christian Science Monitor's new web analytics service, WebSideStory's HBX Analytics, page views broke through the 1 million mark on Monday and soared to more than 1.5 million page views on Tuesday. This represented a massive increase from the site's July average of 121,247 page views per day, according to WebSideStory. Much of the visitor traffic is coming from major news outlets and consumer portals, such as CNN, AOL and Yahoo, which are providing excerpts of the series and linking back to the newspaper's web site. Nearly 90 percent of the visitors to the site are coming from the U.S., with Canadians and the British also showing strong interest. "The Jill Carroll series is clearly resonating with a broad range of visitors from over 144 countries, and we are grateful and proud of Jill and our entire staff for being able to deliver this type of package to our loyal readers," said Robin Antonick, the Christian Science Monitor's chief web officer. "It has also been gratifying to see the tremendous online response to the series using WebSideStory's technology. HBX Analytics really shows our audience's response and has given us an array of insightful visitor metrics which will help the Monitor provide greater coverage of critical world events and ultimately better monetize our content." The Jill Carroll series has been particularly effective at exposing new readers to The Christian Science Monitor brand. During the first two days of the series, the number of new visitors to the site rose to more than seven times its daily average in July, according to WebSideStory. The series, which features online videos, image galleries, RSS feeds and podcasts, also proved extremely sticky, with the percentage of visitors viewing two or more pages rising from an average of 22 percent in July to more than 63 percent during the first two days of this week. "The Christian Science Monitor is recognized worldwide for its journalistic excellence and it has outdone itself with this amazing series detailing Jill's harrowing experience," said Rand Schulman, Chief Marketing Officer for WebSideStory. "We look forward to helping the newspaper analyze all aspects of this multi-media package and achieve its long-term online business goals." For more information about WebSideStory, please visit http://www.websidestory.com/. To visit the Christian Science Monitor web site, please go to http://www.csmonitor.com/. About WebSideStory, Inc. Founded in 1996, WebSideStory, Inc. is a leading provider of digital marketing and analytics solutions that improve online marketing, sales and business operations. Its WebSideStory suite of digital marketing applications consists of web analytics, site search, web content management, and keyword bid management. WebSideStory also provides enterprise analytics solutions through its wholly owned subsidiary, Visual Sciences, LLC, a leading provider of streaming data analysis and visualization software. WebSideStory is headquartered in San Diego, California, and has European headquarters in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. For more information, contact WebSideStory. Voice: 858.546.0040. Fax: 858.546.0480. Address: 10182 Telesis Court, 6th Floor, San Diego, CA 92121. Web site: http://www.websidestory.com/. WebSideStory and HBX are among the trademarks or registered trademarks owned by WebSideStory, Inc. Visual Sciences is a registered trademark of Visual Sciences, LLC. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners. About The Christian Science Monitor The Christian Science Monitor and its website, csmonitor.com, are renowned for their in-depth, comprehensive, and unbiased coverage of events and issues worldwide. During its 93-year history, the Monitor's adherence to the highest standards of journalism has earned seven Pulitzer Prizes and hundreds of other awards. With 18 bureaus worldwide, the Monitor strives to cover both major news events and overlooked stories from every corner of the globe. In 1996, the Monitor launched its award-winning, multi-media website featuring the complete contents of the print edition, full electronic archives back to the first issue, and original material written for the site. Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release that are not a description of historical facts are forward-looking statements. You should not regard any forward-looking statement as a representation by WebSideStory that any of its plans will be achieved. Actual results may differ materially from those set forth in this release due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in WebSideStory's business, including, without limitation: WebSideStory's reliance on its web analytics services for the majority of its revenue; blocking or erasing of cookies or limitations on our ability to use cookies; WebSideStory's limited experience with digital marketing applications beyond web analytics; the risks associated with integrating the operations and products of Avivo Corporation and Visual Sciences, LLC with those of WebSideStory; privacy concerns and laws or other domestic or foreign regulations that may subject WebSideStory to litigation or limit our ability to collect and use Internet user information; WebSideStory's ability to defend itself against claims of patent infringement alleged by NetRatings, Inc.; WebSideStory's ongoing ability to protect its own intellectual property rights and to avoid violating the intellectual property rights of third parties; the highly competitive markets in which we operate that could make it difficult for WebSideStory to acquire and retain customers; the risk that WebSideStory's customers fail to renew their agreements; the risks associated with the company's indebtedness; the risk that WebSideStory's services may become obsolete in a market with rapidly changing technology and industry standards; and other risks described in WebSideStory's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including WebSideStory's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Do not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date of this news release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and WebSideStory undertakes no obligation to revise or update this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this news release. DATASOURCE: WebSideStory, Inc.; The Christian Science Monitor CONTACT: Erik Bratt of WebSideStory, Inc., +1-858-546-0040, ext. 365, ; or Jay Jostyn of The Christian Science Monitor, +1-617-450-2316, Web site: http://www.websidestory.com/ http://www.csmonitor.com/

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