Jenkintown, PA (February 14, 2002) -- Managing Editor Inc. (MEI), a Philadelphia-based software development and integration company, and SoftCare GmbH, a Germany-based software company, have entered into an agreement whereby MEI will serve as the exclusive distributor of the K4 Publishing System in The Americas. K4 is a collaborative publishing system for magazines that integrates Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy with an open and scalable SQL database. K4 provides word processing, pagination and production management for publishing workgroups. The system has been successfully implemented in European magazine sites ranging in size from 15 to 350 users. "The magazine community wants the power and flexibility of database-driven technology, but in systems that are affordable and easy to use," said Dennis McGuire, president and CEO of MEI. "K4 has proven itself at high-profile European publishers. It is an elegant and open system that combines the advantages of SQL with the quality feature sets of Adobe InDesign and InCopy. When coupled with our knowledge and experience and our strong integration and support organization, we believe K4 provides an important and valuable solution for magazine publishers." "InDesign's open extensible architecture makes it the perfect fit for integrators to work with," said Susan Altman Prescott, vice president of Cross-Media Publishing at Adobe. "SoftCare's K4 solution combined with the power of InDesign and InCopy's design and layout capabilities will give North American publishers a solution that enhances creativity and streamlines workflows. We are delighted that MEI is making this possible." MEI will manage all marketing, sales, installation and integration, training, and ongoing technical support for K4 installations. The system will be sold by MEI direct sales representatives and through their network of MEI-authorized distributors across The Americas. "MEI has many years of experience serving the publishing community. They have been doing software development themselves and have an in-depth understanding of publishing workflow. I am delighted that MEI will be our distribution partner in The Americas," said Andreas Schrader, managing director of SoftCare. MEI will showcase K4 at Seybold Seminars New York 2002 conference and exposition, February 22nd to February 24th, at MEI's booth #536 and at their station in the Adobe Solutions Network pavilion. Already, a number of publishers have expressed their interest in seeing a demonstration of the latest version of K4 at the show.