Belo Interactive Doubles Credit Applications for Auto Dealer and Improves Revenue for Vacation Broker By 38% With Targeted Advertising

Response Rates Improved 2200+ Percent

DALLAS, Aug. 12 -- Belo Interactive, the Internet subsidiary of Belo Corp., announced today that DallasNews.com achieved dramatic improvements in consumer response both online and offline through targeted advertising campaigns for a local automotive dealer and a local vacation broker. The end result was improved lead generation for the auto dealer and higher revenue for the vacation broker.

In the automotive category, DallasNews.com, the web site of The Dallas Morning News, worked with a local auto dealer to increase awareness of the dealership and its inventory among consumers who were local, ready to buy, and willing to act now.

In addition to providing contextual advertising within the automotive section of DallasNews.com, targeted banners were delivered to customers who had visited the automotive section within the past 30 days. These ads were served when visitors returned to DallasNews.com even if they were outside the automotive area.

By using TACODA Systems' Audience Management System targeting capabilities to reach visitors whose prior actions suggested a keen interest in the advertiser's message, DallasNews.com created new ad inventory outside of the automotive classified section. The response rate among the target audience was a stunning 7.7% as compared to the national average of .33%, representing an improvement of 2200%.

In addition to increasing the advertiser's reach and the campaign's effectiveness, audience-targeted ads doubled the number of credit applications the dealership received, and increased the number of online searches by 17%. Furthermore, the dealership reported that the DallasNews.com campaign generated 44% of the total calls into the dealership at a time when eight promotions were running in other media.

"While contextual placement has always worked well for us, audience targeting gives us the ability to reach local, ready to buy, car shoppers who are browsing in non-automotive sections of DallasNews.com," said Eric Christensen, vice president and general manager of Belo Interactive. "The results prove that if you deliver truly relevant ad messages, online consumers will respond. Our ability to target an advertisers' message directly to a specified consumer audience dramatically increases the effectiveness of every advertising dollar."

In the travel category, DallasNews.com increased the efficiency and effectiveness of a Dallas-Fort Worth area vacation broker's online campaign aimed at visitors to DallasNews.com most likely to research, shop and purchase vacation travel.

As with the auto dealer, DallasNews.com supplemented contextually-relevant content advertising by delivering targeted ads outside of the travel section to visitors whose prior actions suggested an interest in the advertiser's message. The response rate of 8.15 percent was 2,400 percent higher than national average. And, those that responded to the online campaign generally purchased a package within 10 days.

In addition to increasing the advertiser's reach and the campaign's effectiveness, audience-targeted ads increased vacation package bookings by 50%, and revenue for the vacation broker by 38%. Furthermore, by use of sophisticated tracking mechanisms, the vacation broker reported that the DallasNews.com campaign generated 40% of the total revenue in Dallas for the month of June.

Belo Interactive recently installed TACODA Systems' Audience Management System, giving its 34 web sites such as KING5.com in Seattle, WA; projo.com the web site of The Providence (RI) Journal, and KMOV.com in St. Louis, MO the ability to track and measure online audience demographic and geographic information, behavioral patterns and visitation trends. By integrating Belo Interactive's customer registration database with TACODA Systems' AMS, Belo Interactive sites can qualify audience value to national and local advertisers and create custom, targeted advertising campaigns that deliver a specific message to a defined audience segment.

About Belo Interactive

Belo Interactive is the Internet subsidiary of Dallas-based Belo Corp., one of the nation's largest media companies with a diversified group of market-leading television, newspaper, cable and interactive media assets. A Fortune 1000 company with approximately 7,800 employees and $1.4 billion in annual revenues, Belo operates news and information franchises in some of America's most dynamic markets and regions, including Texas, the Northwest, the Southwest, Rhode Island, and the Mid-Atlantic region. Belo owns 19 television stations (six in the top 16 markets) reaching 13.7 percent of U.S. television households; owns or operates nine cable news channels; and manages one television station through a local marketing agreement. Belo publishes four daily newspapers: The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal, The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA) and the Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, TX). Belo Interactive's new media businesses include 34 Web sites, several interactive alliances, and a broad range of Internet-based products. Additional information is available online at http://www.belointeractive.com/ . For more information, contact Linda Fisk, Vice President/Audience Development and Management, at 214-977-4017.