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 MPL Communications Inc. Acquires Carlson Online Services
 
 Toronto, Ontario--
 
 MPL Communications Inc. (MPL) today announced it has completed
 acquisition of Carlson Online Services Inc. (Carlson Online) of
 Vancouver.
 
 MPL publishes a number of well-known financial advisory services
 including Investor's Digest of Canada, The Investment Reporter
 and IDOnline. Carlson Online is Canada's premier provider of
 institutional quality online Canadian public company information.
 
 The purchase price was over $3 million, payable in part by cash
 and in part by shares in MPL. David Carlson, the founder of
 Carlson Online, has accepted a senior position with MPL in
 Toronto.
 
 MPL Communications Inc. trades on the Alberta Stock Exchange
 under the symbol MPZ and has approximately 14 million shares
 outstanding.
 
 Carlson Online becomes an integral part of MPL's rapidly growing
 electronic delivery services www.IDOnline.ca the company's
 umbrella electronic delivery service. MPL is recognized as
 Canada's major provider of online, independent, actionable
 investment services.
 
 Carlson Online was founded in 1996 by David Carlson as a
 comprehensive Internet resource for investors in Canadian stocks.
 The electronic service's website is www.carlsononline.com. It
 provides bilingual information and each week up to 70,000 people
 access the site. Carlson OnLine makes available advanced
 screening, up to 25 years of company financial statements and
 ratios, and insider trading reports.
 
 Altogether the service provides up-to-date information on more
 than 4,200 Canadian public companies and on American publicly
 traded companies through a U.S. affiliate, Wall Street Research
 Net.
 
 In announcing the completion of the acquisition, Stephen Pepper,
 Chairman of MPL, said "the bringing together of the two companies
 positions MPL as the leader in the delivery of both independent
 online financial advice and actionable company financial
 information to many thousands of Canadian investors."
 
 MPL is Canada's largest provider of independent investment
 advice. The Investment Reporter, founded in 1941, is one of the
 oldest continuously published investment advisories in North
 America. Investor's Digest of Canada is widely acknowledged as
 the country's pre-eminent newspaper for investors.
 
 MPL is also the Canadian publisher of Louis Rukeyser's Wall
 Street, the U.S.'s most widely circulated investment newsletter.
 Other MPL publications include its All Star Funds mutual funds
 rating service, the Canadian Mutual Fund Adviser, the Money
 Reporter, Blue Book of Stock Reports, Best U.S. Stocks for
 Canadian Investors and the Canadian Resources and Pennymines
 Analyst.
 
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 For further information please contact:
 
 Stephen D. Pepper
 Chairman MPL Communications Inc.
 Tel: (416) 869-1177
 www.IDOnline.ca
 
 
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