Cars.com to Sponsor NBC's Hottest New Shows Online

Cars.com to Sponsor NBC's Hottest New Shows Online

CHICAGO, Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Cars.com announced today that it plans to extend its advertising reach with an all-new online sponsorship of NBC's hottest new shows. As NBC takes its new fall line-up online, Cars.com will sponsor streaming broadcasts of "Friday Night Lights," "Heroes," "Kidnapped," "Studio 60," "30 Rock" and "Twenty Good Years." The shows will be offered for free and accessible online for seven days following their broadcast premieres through the "NBC 24/7" video player, part of NBC's Web site, http://www.nbc.com/ .

"We are excited to be among the first advertisers behind NBC's new online offering," said Carolyn Crafts, Cars.com's vice president of marketing. "As more people turn to the Internet for entertainment, we saw this as a unique opportunity to reach a captive and dedicated audience of online viewers. We want to be there to build their awareness of Cars.com and to show how easy we make it to find the car that's right for them."

The NBC ad buy comes on top of Cars.com's recent sponsorship of ESPN's Saturday Afternoon College Football. Both sponsorships are high-profile additions to Cars.com's 2006 media campaign, which features spots and unique sponsorships on top cable networks including Discovery, ESPN, Food Network, TBS, TLC, TNT, USA and WGN. Combined with the local promotional efforts of the company's 200 local media partners, the integrated broadcast, print and online campaign is valued at more than $100 million, and expected to reach more than 200 million consumers.

"We continue to reach -- and to look for new ways to reach -- more in-market, ready-to-buy car shoppers than ever before, as this campaign demonstrates," said Mitch Golub, Cars.com's president. "Behind the scenes, we remain focused on developing innovative tools to assist car buyers with their next vehicle purchase when they arrive at our site."

About Cars.com

Partnered with more than 200 leading metro newspapers, television stations and their websites, Cars.com is the most comprehensive destination for those looking to buy or sell a new or used car. The site lists more than 1.8 million vehicles from 12,000 dealer customers, classified advertisers and private parties 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. Recently selected by Forbes.com as a Best of the Web site for car shopping, 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 car shoppers connect with sellers each month.

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

EDITOR'S NOTE: View the Cars.com TV commercials online at
http://dealers.cars.com/media .
First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Cars.com

CONTACT: Brian R. Hannan of Cars.com, +1-312-601-5519 (direct), or
+1-312-218-0788 (mobile), or bhannan@cars.com

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

-------
Profile: intent