Press Release

Franklin Electronic Publishers and St. Martin's Press Prepare for a New Wave of Content Availability for eBookMan(R)

NEW YORK, June 26, 2001 -- Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc., the leading worldwide provider of handheld eBooks, and St. Martin's Press, one of the ten largest publishers in the United States, are working together to make St. Martin's vast library of electronic content available for Franklin's eBookMan® multimedia content reader. St. Martin's Press/Tor Books maintain an extensive eBook catalog that spans a wide range of reading interests and the relationship could provide eBookMan users a refreshing new line-up of new and backlist titles. By working with Franklin's eBookMan secure platform, St. Martin's/Tor continue their leadership role in expanding the availability of digital content in an open marketplace that protects copyrights.

"Franklin's approach to distributing copyright protected digital media allows us to work with the publishing community and together, we will take the steps needed to provide the content consumers demand,'' said Elizabeth Mackey, Franklin's vice president of content acquisition. "Franklin is committed to providing a secure platform that protects the rights of the authors and publishers and we look forward to a working relationship with St. Martin's Press.''

"We're very excited about Franklin's new product,'' said Jeff Gomez, eBooks and Print on Demand Manager for St.Martin's Press/Tor. "And as one of the leaders and pioneers in the emerging eBooks industry, it makes perfect sense that SMP/Tor team up with Franklin in order to make our titles available to customers today, as well as to a whole new generation of readers in the future.''

Robert Ludlum, one of the top thriller writers of his generation, is just one of the best-selling authors on St. Martin's roster that eBookMan users will have access to. Ludlum published his first thriller in 1971 and has since written 21 bestsellers including The Hades Factor, The Prometheus Deception and The Cassandra Compact. All of Ludlum's novels are still in print.

About St. Martin's Press

St. Martin's Press and Tor are divisions of Holtzbrinck Publishers, a U.S. subsidiary of Verlagsgruppe Georg Von Holtzbrinck, GmbH. Holtzbrinck Publishers includes the trade publishing houses of Henry Holt and Company, St. Martin's Press, Tor, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, the academic and scholarly publishing company Palgrave, and the distribution company VHPS.

About eBookMan

eBookMan® is a multimedia content player offering mass-market audiences a robust feature set and an optimal display screen at an affordable price. All three eBookMan® models have a large 240 x 200 pixel LCD that displays 87 percent more information than a typical handheld. Each model gives consumers a vehicle to download thousands of electronic books, audio books and musical works, to synchronize between users' personal information manager programs and Microsoft® Outlook®, to record and play voice memos and to write notes easily with natural handwriting recognition. Franklin's open but secure architecture also enables publishers and developers to offer more titles in a protected environment.

The entry model, EBM-900, with a suggested retail price of $129.95, includes a microphone, speaker, headphone jack, multimedia memory card for memory expansion, a USB port and 8 MB of built-in memory. The EBM-901, with a suggested retail price of $179.95, adds a backlit, polarized display and additional free books. The flagship model, the EBM-911, suggested to retail for $229.95, offers 16MB of memory and even more free content.

eBookMan won the eBook Technology Award from the International eBook Award Foundation at the Frankford Book Fair in October 2000.

About Franklin

Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc. (Amex: FEP - news), the worldwide market leader in handheld electronic books, is the designer and distributor of the award winning multimedia eBookMan® platform. The Company is the exclusive producer and distributor of the ROLODEX® Electronics brand of personal information management products. Franklin has sold more than 25,000,000 electronic books and currently publishes more than 200 titles, including dictionaries and bilingual dictionaries; encyclopedias; Bibles; entertainment titles; education and tutorial publications; and medical reference works. Franklin products, available in sixteen languages, are sold in 45,000 retail outlets worldwide, through catalogs and on line at franklin.com . The Company has sales and distribution subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Benelux countries, Canada, Australia and Mexico, and production management offices in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

ROLODEX® is a registered trademark of Berol Corporation, a subsidiary of Newell Rubbermaid, Inc.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed throughout this release, including, but not limited to, those that are stated as Franklin's belief or expectation or preceded by the word "should'' are forward looking statements that involve risks to and uncertainties in Franklin's business, including, among other things, the timely availability and acceptance of new electronic books and organizers, changes in technology, the impact of competitive electronic products, the management of inventories, Franklin's dependence on third party component suppliers and manufacturers, including those that provide Franklin-specific parts, and other risks and uncertainties that may be detailed from time to time in Franklin's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.