Cars.com Announces Winners of 7th Annual Affiliate Award Program

Cars.com Announces Winners of 7th Annual Affiliate Award Program

Affiliate Awards Recognize Innovation & Leadership of Local Automotive Classified Sites

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at its annual affiliate summit, cars.com announced the winners of the 2004 Affiliate Awards, designed to recognize outstanding sales and marketing achievements in automotive classifieds among the Company's network of 175 leading local media partners.

Although recognized for individual achievement, cars.com local media partners demonstrated a strong commitment to bringing consumers and advertisers a robust automotive marketplace in 2004. By providing a quality, in-market consumer audience to advertiser listings, cars.com markets across the nation strengthened their local classified presence, both in print and online.

"The momentum of our local media partners played an instrumental role in our record 2004 growth, and continues to differentiate cars.com from its competitors," said Mitch Golub, president of cars.com. "While the performance of all of our markets was notable, the Affiliate Awards celebrate those partners who have raised the bar of our collective success, going above and beyond to make their local automotive classifieds the premier destination."

The 2004 Cars.com Affiliate Awards are as follows:

Main Street Marketing Award: The Tallahassee Democrat


The Main Street Marketing Award, presented for marketing excellence in mid-size and community markets, was presented to The Tallahassee Democrat, who seamlessly integrated their brand with cars.com materials for in-market promotion, including classified campaigns, extensive online promotion and daily in-paper/TV presence.

Madison Avenue Marketing Award: AZCentral.com

Designed to recognize marketing achievement at the in large markets, the Madison Avenue Marketing Award was presented to AZCentral.com, for their extension of the cars.com brand throughout their online, classified and niche publications.

Phoenix Award: Riverside Press Enterprise, Ft. Wayne Newspapers, Newport News Daily Press

The Phoenix, awarded to markets with the largest increases in year-over- year sales and retention, is shared this year between three markets that energetically grew market share and promoted cars.com in their local communities.

Pathfinder Award - Community: Norwich Bulletin

Created to honor sales and marketing leadership at the Community level, the Norwich Bulletin received the 2004 Pathfinder Award - Community for its service of advertisers throughout Eastern Connecticut.

Pathfinder Award - Mid-City: The Newspaper Network of Central Ohio

With a strong media presence in central Ohio, NNCO was recognized for sales and marketing leadership in mid-city markets through its extensive promotion of cars.com at the local level.

Pathfinder Award - Metro Market: The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News

Serving the over 5 million residents of the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News received the Pathfinder Award in recognition of their sales and marketing leadership for a large market.

Flagship Award: The Los Angeles Times

Cars.com's annual flagship award is presented to the local market partner who consistently exceeds standards in both sales and marketing. This year's recipient, The Los Angeles Times, leveraged an integrated approach to achieve the greatest advertiser growth in the history of cars.com

About cars.com

Partnered with 175 leading metro newspapers, television stations and their Web sites, cars.com is the most comprehensive destination for those looking to buy or sell a new or used car. The site places vehicle listings from nearly 10,000 dealers alongside nationwide classified advertising and private-party listings to offer consumers the best selection of new and used cars online, as well as the content, tools and advice to support their shopping experience. Cars.com combines powerful inventory search tools and new-car configuration with pricing information, photo galleries, buying guides, side-by-side comparison tools, original editorial content and reviews to help millions of consumers connect with sellers each month.

Launched in June 1998, cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC, ( http://classifiedventures.com/ ), which is owned by six leading media companies including, Belo (NYSE:BLC), Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Knight Ridder (NYSE:KRI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB) and The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO). For more information, visit http://www.cars.com/ .

Product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.


Source: cars.com

CONTACT: Kerri McLaughlin of cars.com, +1-312-601-6134, or mobile,
+1-773-412-7823, kmclaughlin@cars.com

Web site: http://www.cars.com/


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