NEW YORK, January 31, 2001 -- Bowne & Co., Inc. [NYSE: BNE] today announced that it expects earnings for the period to be below its earlier estimates, primarily due to lower than anticipated volumes in the Company's financial printing business. Robert M. Johnson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bowne, said, "As most observers of the financial markets know, the number of transactions and, in particular, initial public offerings, dramatically decreased in the latter part of 2000. While we were on target with earnings estimates through November, we experienced a steep decline in December. We are still in the process of finalizing our quarterly financial results, but anticipate fourth quarter diluted earnings per share, before certain one-time charges, to be in the range of a loss of $0.03 to earnings of $0.02. As previously announced, earnings will be further impacted by a restructuring charge of approximately $0.13 per share (diluted) related to our cost reduction initiatives." In addition, the Company will be reporting a non-cash charge in the range of $10 to $15 million pending final determination of the fair value of certain assets in the Internet consulting business resulting from the closure of two offices and reduction in its workforce in reaction to changes in the marketplace, as announced in November. Mr. Johnson concluded, "The slowdown in financial print volumes is continuing into the first quarter of 2001. As a result, we currently believe that we will not achieve our previous earnings projections for the full year of 2001. We expect to provide more information about the first quarter and full-year projections on our earnings conference call scheduled for Thursday, February 15."