LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- June 15, 2005 -- ZUMA Press, America's largest independent picture agency, proudly announces representation of the leading Minnesota daily, the Star Tribune. Today's deal gives ZUMA worldwide rights to represent the paper's daily picture production plus years of award-winning news, feature, sports and business coverage. Representing Star Tribune content expands the picture wire's newspaper syndication division by formalizing a long-running relationship between ZUMA and the leading Midwest daily.

"Of all the photo agencies I've worked with I found ZUMA to be by far the best," said Peter Koeleman, Star Tribune director of photography. "They are consummate professionals. When the Iraqi coffin photo was published in the Seattle Times, their photo editor called me to ask which agency I thought would be fair and treat the photographer honestly and with respect. I did not hesitate to recommend ZUMA. I look forward to a good working relationship with them in the future," he said.

This is the second Mc Clatchy Company paper ZUMA has signed--the agency began representing the Sacramento Bee in 2003. ZUMA also represents the picture content of a dozen other major publications, including national sports weekly The Sporting News, Florida's prolific Palm Beach Post, Texas' diverse and ever-strong daily the San Antonio Express-News, London's large and dynamic Daily Mail, Spain's main daily ABC and Canada's largest newspaper and paper of record, the Toronto Star.

"I am extremely proud to announce today's deal with the Star Tribune," said Scott Mc Kiernan, director and founder of ZUMA Press. "The work that comes out of Peter's staff always amazes me for its elegance and journalistic depth. I look forward to letting the world appreciate their images as their credit line and pictures grace the pages of hundreds of weeklies and dailies around the world," he said.

The Star Tribune has a long history of excellent documentary photography. In 2005, its standing was enhanced by several important national awards. Jim Gehrz was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year by National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) and National Photographer of the Year by Scripps-Howard. His work was also a finalist in the Pulitzer competition and was showcased as part of ZUMA's elite photojournalism essay division, zReportage.com. NPPA honored Renee Jones for a sports feature photo and Brian Peterson and Vickie Kettlewell for photo editing. Rich Tsong-Taatarii won the photo shoot competition at Unity 2004.

In the weeks ahead, the "Best Of" the Star Tribune's picture archive will be loaded into ZUMA's e-commerce Website (ZUMApress.com) and made available for immediate syndication by editors worldwide.

About ZUMA Press

ZUMA Press is the largest independent press agency and wire service of award-winning imagery for editorial and creative professional use. Founded in 1995, ZUMA represents the photography of over 900 professionals worldwide, including Pulitzer Prize, World Press Photo and POY winners. ZUMA is also the agent of major global picture agencies and dozens large dailies.

With such outstanding content, coupled with the largest distribution network among independent agencies, ZUMA images reach and are published by every major media outlet in the world.

ZUMA 1995-2005--celebrating a decade of excellence in photojournalism.

Contact Sylvia Stewart VP, Corporate Communications ZUMA Press, Inc. 949.494.7704 Sylvia@ZUMApress.com