Classified Ventures Acquires Internet
Real Estate Marketing Pioneer ListingLink

CHICAGO, IL – December 4, 1998 -- Classified Ventures, L.L.C., the Internet services business formed by eight leading U.S. media companies, today announced it has acquired ListingLink, L.L.C., a pioneer in online marketing services for the real estate industry, from The Times Mirror Company. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"ListingLink brings to Classified Ventures a proven ability to develop innovative relationships with both real estate organizations and newspapers and to provide the operational excellence they need to realize the full potential of Internet marketing," said Bob Bellack, general manager of real estate for Classified Ventures.

Earlier this month, at the National Association of Realtors‘ convention in Anaheim, Calif., Classified Ventures introduced its new Internet real estate program, HomeHunter, and announced a strategic partnership with Zip2 Corporation to develop the HomeHunter technology platform.

Bellack said ListingLink will provide a wide array of operational and marketing support services for HomeHunter, which is designed to drive traffic, leads and sales to agents and brokers by combining advanced technology with the local-market reach, reputation and promotional power of local newspapers and their Web sites.

Since 1994, ListingLink has provided Internet marketing services – from listings data normalization to Web site design, development and maintenance and from ongoing customer support to sales training – to help more than 10,000 agents and brokers in California, New York and Hawaii benefit from online marketing.

"We are excited by the tremendous opportunities of Classified Ventures and HomeHunter," said ListingLink co-founder Dana Keith. " The resources of Classified Ventures will enable us to improve service to our existing clients and expand our reach to serve agents and brokers through the more than 140 newspaper affiliates of Classified Ventures."

In addition to offering marketing services to agents and brokers, ListingLink also provides data normalization and processing for the online property listings of the Los Angeles Times, which is owned by The Times Mirror Company. "As part of Classified Ventures, ListingLink will now be able to support the efforts of many newspapers across the country to create successful online partnerships with their local real estate community," said Los Angeles Times vice president Renee LaBran.

Classified Ventures, L.L.C., based in Chicago was formed by eight leading media companies – Central Newspapers Inc., Gannett Co., Inc., Knight Ridder, the McClatchy Company, The New York Times Company, The Times Mirror Company, Tribune Company, and the Washington Post Company. It 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 an apartments Web site (www.Apartments.com), a car site (www.cars.com), a new-home site (www.newhomenetwork.com) and recently acquired an auction site (www.classifiedventures.com). For more information, visit www.classifiedventures.com.

HomeHunter provides enabling technologies and tools, information resources, quality assurance and promotional support to the local-market resale real estate Web sites of Classified Ventures affiliates. HomeHunter currently is in development and will begin rolling out to local markets in early 1999.

(Editor’s Note: HomeHunter has been a brand name for Knight Ridder, which is now an affiliate of Classified Ventures, L.L.C. The HomeHunter program is separate and distinct from the Knight Ridder real estate program, whose members will become affiliates of HomeHunter.