February 20, 2006

CityXpress Corp. announces a partnership with Planet Discover to integrate Planet Discover’s Ad System technology into its eMarketplaceXpress B2B platform.

Through the partnership with Planet Discover, a leading provider of search and advertising technologies to local media publishers, CityXpress can now combine the Ad System technology with its eMarketplaceXpress platform to deliver highly targeted keyword-based advertising alongside search results.

This will enable newspaper customers to match advertisers with shoppers’ interests at premium online advertising rates, creating new revenue streams from online classifieds in addition to revenue from listings and feature up-sells.

Additionally, local advertisers will have the option to self-manage their ad campaigns using Planet Discover’s robust self-serve interface, while advertisers can edit their ads and review performance.

“The addition of contextual advertising is a perfect complement to our platform, and allows newspapers to approach new local advertisers with an innovative advertising campaign tied to their classifieds,” said Phil Dubois, president and CEO of CityXpress.

“By offering this feature with our marketplace platform, we are giving newspapers another way to monetize their online classifieds, and offer greater value to local businesses by delivering targeted ads to local readers.”

Northcliffe Newspapers Group will implement the Ad System feature into the Stuff4Sale marketplaces that it began deploying to 18 of its leading daily newspapers in the United Kingdom last October. CityXpress hosts the Stuff4Sale sites on its eMarketplaceXpress platform.

“The key to making money with contextual advertising is content and site traffic, both of which are in abundance with the Stuff4Sale platform that CityXpress has created for Northcliffe,” said Terry Millard, president and CEO of Planet Discover.

“Incorporating our advertising solution with CityXpress’ robust eMarketplaceXpress platform allows us to offer a powerful combined service that is unmatched in the industry.”

“The monetization of trade advertising opportunities on our ever-growing Stuff4Sale network is a key business decision in our online strategy. Our belief is that the addition of the Planet Discover technology into our platform will allow our financial aspirations to be realized,” said Steve Hollingsworth, deputy group advertisement director of Northcliffe.

CityXpress introduced its eMarketplaceXpress platform in 2005 as a complete, stand-alone online classified marketplace that enables newspapers to respond aggressively to free classified competitors.

CityXpress will be demonstrating its eMarketplaceXpress platform with the Planet Discover Ad System in Booth 205 at the upcoming NAA Marketing Conference in Orlando, Feb. 19-22.

Source: Line 56