BLC Belo Corp.

CHICAGO, July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Cars.com announced today a significant milestone in the growth of its lead generation business. Two thousand dealer franchises now use NewLeadsPlus, the new car lead generation product Cars.com launched in August 2005. "In just one year since launching our service, we have gained substantial market share," said Mitch Golub, president of Cars.com. "Dealer response to NewLeadsPlus has been overwhelming, affirming the market's need for a new kind of lead provider." Unlike others in the business who aggregate leads from myriad sources, Cars.com generates all of its own leads directly through the top search engines and delivers them directly to the dealership. Dealers receive the leads within 7 minutes of submission, allowing them, in many cases, to follow-up with prospects while they are still online. "Our success in launching NewLeadsPlus speaks directly to the quality and caliber of leads we generate," continued Golub. "Cars.com captures leads from the 88 percent of new car shoppers who use a search engine in their online research process. All of our lead senders are hand raisers who are actively searching for a specific make and model, and dealers recognize that quality." Cars.com made its move into the new car lead generation business with its acquisition of Califonia-based NewCars.com in July of 2005. 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://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). DATASOURCE: Cars.com CONTACT: Brian R. Hannan of Cars.com, +1-312-601-5519 (direct), or +1-312-218-0788 (mobile), Web site: http://www.cars.com/

Copyright