BARCELONA, Spain - October 17, 2002 - Quark today announced that Ringier AG, the largest publishing house in Switzerland, will upgrade more than 400 QuarkXPress licenses to version 5 as part of their membership in the new ServicePlus program. Zürich-based Ringier is the publisher of Switzerland's largest daily and Sunday newspapers, as well as many successful magazines, television programs, and Web sites. The newly-revamped ServicePlus program features discounted QuarkXPress 5 upgrades, unlimited technical support, and a guaranteed upgrade to the next major release of QuarkXPress. "The new ServicePlus program provides excellent value for publishers.Quark has made the right move at the right time by introducing this program," said Samuel Huegli, director of IT and media technology at Ringier. "The ServicePlus pricing is extremely attractive, and it adds predictability to our software budgeting process. We have the flexibility to select the platform of our choice and more confidence as we develop our long-range technology plan." "Quark is dedicated to helping its customers make sound technology decisions," said Kambis Ebrahimi, general manager of Quark in Europe. "We believe ServicePlus will make it easier for publishing organizations to take advantage of the latest enhancements to QuarkXPress as soon as they become available." "We're intrigued by Quark's enterprise publishing vision, and we're looking forward to rolling out a pilot project with the QuarkDMS editorial solution," continued Huegli.