Editing Prodigy (online service) (section)

==Growth==
By 1994, Prodigy became a pioneer in selling "dial-up" connections to the [[World Wide Web]] and sold hosting services for Web publishers.

Prodigy regularly became the focus of discussions on ''[[The Howard Stern Show]]'' in the mid-nineties. Numerous shows were devoted to it. In addition, Howard met face-to-face with people he had talked to in Prodigy chat groups under a pseudonym. Howard was the most prominent radio name in America, gaining excellent ratings at the time. So it could only have been a positive for the Prodigy brand.

As the company shifted from its focus on its exclusive "Prodigy Classic" content and started transitioning to "Prodigy Internet" as an ISP in the late 1990s, Prodigy found itself competing with many other lower-priced ISPs, and the price didn't support the value of the Prodigy Internet exclusive content available for members. In a letter to members, Prodigy explained that upgrades to Prodigy Classic to resolve its Y2K issues were just too expensive and that it felt investing in Prodigy Internet was the best long-term strategy, as many of the popular services offered by Prodigy Classic could be found elsewhere. This decision was consistent with what other online service providers (AOL, CompuServe, MSN) were doing at the time. Still, with these providers competing primarily on ease of ISP setup rather than exclusive content, the retention value was lost. Many members found more affordable ways to access the online content and services they were used to.

In 1999 the company, now led by a cadre of ex-MCI executives to turn the brand around, became Prodigy Internet, marketing a full range of services, applications, and content, including dial-up and DSL for consumers and small businesses, instant messaging, e-mail, and communities.