McGraw-Hill Construction and the American Subcontractors Association Launch New Product

Strategic Alliance to Provide ASA Members with Information for More Cost-Effective Purchasing

NEW YORK -- March. 19, 2003--McGraw-Hill Construction, part of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP), and the American Subcontractors Association (ASA), today announced a new product offering as part of their strategic alliance. The new product, which will leverage the strengths of both McGraw-Hill Construction Sweets and the ASA, is designed to enable subcontractors to find, compare, select and purchase products more efficiently and effectively.

For the past 37 years, the ASA has been the voice of the specialty contracting industry, providing professional subcontractors with advocacy, leadership, networking and education. It serves 5,500 firms through a network of state and local chapters. The new alliance feature maximizes the strength of each organization, expanding McGraw-Hill Construction Sweets Marketplace communities and providing strong market channels for ASA products and services. The Sweets Subcontractor Directory and sweets.construction.com subcontractor community online will be co-branded with Sweets and ASA logos. In addition, there will be links between sweets.construction.com and asaonline.com, enabling ASA members to more easily find, select, compare and purchase products. Further, the two organizations will work closely together to provide responsive content for ASA members, engage in joint research projects to identify members' needs, and enable ASA members to provide content for Sweet publications.

"McGraw-Hill Construction connects the leading information and intelligence of the construction industry," observed its president, Norbert W. Young, Jr., FAIA. "We value our relationship with the American Subcontractors Association and the opportunity it presents to drive new growth opportunities for subcontractors, a key segment of the construction industry. This new, joint offering will enable subcontractors to save time and money when they want to find, compare, select and purchase products."

"ASA members are eager to see the new opportunities offered by our expanded strategic alliance with McGraw-Hill Construction," said 2002-2003 ASA President Anne Bigane Wilson, CPC, PE president of Chicago based Bigane Paving Company. "The Sweets Subcontractors Directory and the online Subcontractor Community at sweets.construction.com opens new doors to the ways subcontractors will find the products they need to do business in the 21st century."

About McGraw-Hill Construction

McGraw-Hill Construction connects people, projects and products across the design and construction industry. From project and product information to industry news, trends and forecasts, the Company provides industry players the tools, resources and applications that help them save time, money, and energy. Backed by the power of Dodge, Sweets, Architectural Record, Engineering News-Record (ENR) and our Regional Publications, McGraw-Hill Construction serves more than one million customers within the $3.4 trillion global construction community. For more information, visit www.construction.com.

About ASA

Founded in 1966, ASA serves 5,500 member companies and is dedicated to improving general business conditions for all subcontractors through unified and cooperative actions. ASA's vision is to be the united voice dedicated to improving the business environment in the construction industry. The association emphasizes industry and legislative reforms on such issues as prompt payment, pay-if-paid clauses, retainage, lien rights, bid shopping, and unfair risk transfer through indemnity, additional insured requirements and waivers of subrogation. ASA provides its members with advocacy, leadership, education and networking.
For more information, visit www.asaonline.com.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, BusinessWeek and McGraw-Hill Education. The Corporation has over 350 offices in 33 countries. Sales in 2002 were $4.8 billion. Additional information is available at www.mcgraw-hill.com.

COMPANY CONTACT:
Kathy Malangone
212-904-4376
kathy_malangone@mcgraw-hill.com

PORTFOLIO PR CONTACT:
Jerry Cahn
212-736-9224
jcahn@portfoliopr.com

SOURCE: The McGraw-Hill Companies