The Boston Globe's boston.com and cars.com Deliver Internet Car Shopping Service Targeting Boston's Booming Internet Community

Business Wire, March 17, 1999

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 1999--Cars.com, the industry's fastest growing automotive Web site, is now available to Boston area consumers on The Boston Globe's Web site, boston.com. With Boston ranked sixth among cities with the most Internet users, according to Yahoo! Internet Life, the relationship with cars.com is a strategic move for boston.com to increase its reach among the region's Net savvy population.

Cars.com will be the exclusive provider of automotive classified listings on boston.com. Boston.com receives 2.6 million visitors per month, according to the Spring 1999 @plan reports.

"Consumers have relied on The Boston Globe to provide them with extensive automotive information such as local car listings and reviews," said Lincoln Millstein, vice president of new media for The Boston Globe. "We're now taking this relationship to the next level by bringing valuable interactive tools and archival information to our online audience. Our partnership with cars.com extends the Globe's commitment to helping our readers make better informed purchasing decisions."

By clicking on the cars.com link on The Boston Globe's web site, http://www.boston.com, local consumers can search used vehicles and utilize a new car quote service. Updated daily, cars.com includes more than 2,500 used car listings from The Boston Globe's automotive classifieds and vehicle inventory from participating local dealerships. Vehicle listings can be searched by zip code, vehicle make, model and year.

Cars.com also provides a wealth of vehicle information such as an auto loan payment calculator, current new vehicle prices, news and reports on new vehicles, independent automotive reviews and advice on vehicle performance data and vehicle recall to the more than 2.6 million viewers boston.com receives each month. In addition, users can also access extensive review archives from John White, The Boston Globe's automotive writer.

"By partnering with the leading daily newspaper in Boston, cars.com is able to create a strong local market community for both car shoppers and participating dealerships," said Mitch Golub, president and general manager, cars.com. "Residents in the Boston area now have access to extensive new and used listings from a one-stop resource that has some of the richest automotive content on the Internet."

The launch of cars.com on boston.com is being supported by an extensive advertising campaign. Print media placement includes advertising in The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, The Want Ad Advertiser and even the Massachusetts Driver's Instruction Manual. Radio, outdoor, and online advertising also support the launch. The media budget for the campaign is estimated at $500,000.

About boston.com:

Boston.com is a service of The Boston Globe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The New York Times Company, a diversified media company including newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations, and electronic information and publishing.

The company publishes The New York Times, The Boston Globe, 21 regional newspapers and three magazines and conducts related activities in the fields of golf, tennis, skiing and sailing; operates eight network-affiliated television stations and two New York City radio stations. It also operates news, photo and graphic services; manages news and feature syndicates, and has several electronic publishing and new media activities. It is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYT.

About Classified Ventures

Cars.com is a division of Chicago-based Classified Ventures, Inc, which is funded by eight leading media companies: Central Newspapers, Inc.; Gannett Co.; Knight Ridder; The McClatchy Company; The New York Times Company; The Times Mirror Company; Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company.

Classified Ventures, Inc., provides national and locally branded online services for e-commerce opportunities in the classified advertising marketplace that build upon the capabilities and local expertise of its national affiliate network.

Classified Ventures currently operates the national Apartments.com Web site www.Apartments.com, the national cars.com, www.cars.com, the national NewHomeNetwork.com Web site, www.NewHomeNetwork.com, the local HomeHunter.com Web site, www.HomeHunter.com, and the recently acquired Auction Universe site, www.auctionuniverse.com, online auction Web site. For more information Classified Ventures, visit http://www.classifiedventures.com.