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Dialog NewsRoom Now Available
as Stand-alone Service

Content Sources Exceed Company's Goal as New Global Sources Added

CARY, N.C., USA — August 2, 2002 — Dialog, a Thomson (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) business and a leading worldwide provider of online-based information services and integrated information solutions, announced today it has made its recently launched Dialog NewsRoom database available as a stand-alone, Web-based service accessible at www.dialognewsroom.com.

In addition to now being available as a stand-alone service, Dialog NewsRoom remains available as a file on the Dialog®-branded platform of online services (file number 990), and as files on the Dialog DataStar™ (file: NEWS) and Dialog Profound® (file: NewsLine) services.

The company also said that it has exceeded its previously announced goal for the number of sources to be available for electronic searching and retrieval through Dialog NewsRoom, with more than 7,000 sources of news now included. Additionally, the stand-alone product, Dialog NewsRoom, also offers about 1,500 of those sources with a five-year archive.

"Dialog NewsRoom represents an important strategic mission for us," said Roy M. Martin, Jr., Dialog president and CEO. "We have made it available as a stand-alone service in order to maximize the number of potential users around the world who can benefit from it. We believe it is the world's best one-stop database for news tracking and current awareness searching needs. Certainly it is the most extensive portfolio of news content ever assembled on Dialog services."

Among the numerous sources added in recent weeks are Kauppalehti, a leading Finish business and financial newspaper; HedgeWorld Daily News, a New York City-based online news service serving the global hedge fund and alternative investment industries; and Transitions Online, a leading Internet magazine covering Eastern and Central Europe, the Balkans and the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Other new sources include German-language content from Informationsring Kreditwirtschaft, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank and Aerzte Zeitung Verlagsgesellschaft.

In addition, content from PRIMEDIA Business Magazines (reporting on 20 industry sectors); the Associated Press (including its Alerts and State Wires services); American Health Consultants (including its 80 newsletters covering a broad spectrum of health care topics); and the Federal Document Clearing House (featuring comprehensive political and government news from the United States) now have been added to Dialog NewsRoom.

Many of the world's leading newspapers, periodicals and news services are also available through Dialog NewsRoom.

"Our goal is to offer access to both the world's best-known sources of news and analysis and also to many local, regional and industry-specific titles that can give a unique perspective," added Martin. "The breadth of sources is truly awesome."

Dialog NewsRoom, launched in March 2002, is a unified database of news sources that may be searched simultaneously using a single search command. Content sources include broadcast transcripts, newspapers (including hundreds of newspapers from around the world), periodicals, newswires, trade and scholarly journals, and other content sources, in English and seven other languages, drawn from nearly 80 countries.

Dialog NewsRoom features enterprise-wide subscriptions of a fixed monthly fee for unlimited use based on the number of users accessing the database within an organization, in addition to its previously announced US$2.95 per document retrieval fee.

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About Dialog
Founded in 1972 by Dr. Roger K. Summit, a pioneer in developing the technology behind electronic information retrieval, Dialog is the world leader in providing online-based information services to organizations seeking competitive advantages in such fields as business, science, engineering, finance and law.

Today, Dialog's online services — offered through the Dialog®, Dialog Profound®, Dialog DataStar™, NewsEdge and Intelligence Data brands — give users the ability to precisely retrieve data from more than 1.4 billion unique records, accessible via the Internet or through delivery to enterprise intranets. Searchable content includes articles and reports from thousands of real-time news feeds, newspapers, broadcast transcripts and trade publications, plus research reports and analyst notes providing support for financial decision-making, as well as in-depth repositories of scientific and technical data, patents, trademarks and other intellectual property data.

Corporate librarians, knowledge managers, other information professionals and end-users at more than 25,000 business, professional and government organizations in more than 100 countries prize Dialog services for their depth and breadth of content, precision searching and speed.

Headquartered in Cary, N.C., USA, with direct operations in 31 other countries worldwide, Dialog is a business of The Thomson Corporation. For more information about Dialog, please visit www.dialog.com. Or, please call (U.S./Canada) 800-3-DIALOG or (U.S.) 919-462-8600. Dialog's London office may be reached at (44) (0) 207-940-6900.

About The Thomson Corporation
The Thomson Corporation (www.thomson.com), with 2001 revenues of US$7.2 billion, is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. Thomson provides value-added information, software applications and tools to more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate training and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).

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