Contact: David Carew
(615) 661-0249
ext. 8077
dcarew@mleesmith.com

Tennessee Legislative Proclamation Helps Honor
25th Anniversary Year of One of U.S.'s Most Successful
Niche-Market Publishers

Quarter-Century Sees M. Lee Smith Publishers Rise from Two-Person Business to Position as Premier U.S. Newsletter Publisher

BRENTWOOD, TN, February 24, 2000-It started as a quintessential American dream: to start your own business doing something you love. In 1975, young Tennessee attorney Lee Smith-whose path already had crossed with such political luminaries as Howard Baker, Lamar Alexander, and Winfield Dunn-decided to start an insider's newsletter on Tennessee politics he would call The Tennessee Journal.

The idea clicked with readers across the state, and now-25 years later-Lee Smith has "rolled out" that still-successful first newsletter to a point where he now publishes more than 125 niche-market newsletters and other information products for targeted audiences across the U.S., including 50 state-specific employment law newsletters.

In honor of Smith's 25th Anniversary Year, the Tennessee General Assembly recently adopted a special proclamation honoring M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC.

Not to be outdone, Smith's employees also are marking this special year for him, initially by honoring him with two big surprises. First, more than 100 of his employees showed up unexpectedly at a recent Vanderbilt basketball game (where Smith always has a front-row seat) and unfurled a huge banner for him reading "Congratulations M. Lee Smith Publishers - 25 Years of Nothin' But Net !"

Then, shortly thereafter-at what Smith believed was to be a standard, company-wide business meeting-he was treated to a surprise video/audio presentation honoring his 25 years in business, featuring recorded congratulations from many of his old friends, including former Tennessee governors Lamar Alexander and Winfield Dunn, former U.S. Senator and White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker, and other friends and colleagues. While many Tennesseans throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s knew Lee Smith's name and face from his syndicated newspaper column and political commentary on Nashville TV news programs, far fewer were aware of the rapidly-growing, unique company he was spearheading at the same time.

After the successful 1975 launch of The Tennessee Journal, Smith followed with Tennessee Attorneys Memo, a weekly summary of Tennessee appellate court decisions, which also remains successful and profitable to this day.

In 1979, M. Lee Smith Publishers acquired a printing operation to handle the expanding needs of its publishing ventures. This also allowed the company to started offering newsletter printing and mailing services to other newsletter publishers. Leading organizations that currently outsource newsletter work to M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC include John Wiley & Sons, Harcourt Brace Professional Publishing, Securities Data Publishing, and Aspen Law & Business, among many others.

In the 1980s, Smith began to recognize the increasing effect state legislatures and courts were having on business operations nationwide. To help corporate executives comply with rapid changes in state law, M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC started teaming with some of the nation's most prestigious law firms. Together, they created state-specific subscription newsletters, manuals, guidebooks, and electronic products for leaders and decision-makers in all 50 states. For each of the newsletters, a leading law firm in the given state provides the editorial information and writing, while M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC executes layout, printing, mailing, marketing, and all related business functions.

Now serving a nationwide readership of more than 50,000 human resources professionals, attorneys, environmental-compliance professionals, health care executives, and law enforcement officials, M. Lee Smith Publishers' newsletters and other state-of-the-art information products and services have become, over the past 25 years, a critical part of the knowledge-acquisition and decision-making processes of today's business and legal professionals.