Media Consortium Acquires AdOne Classified Network

Internet classified ad company AdOne Classified Network and its ClassifiedWarehouse.com consumer Web site have been acquired by a consortium of American media companies.

The buyers — MediaNews Group, Hearst Corp., E.W. Scripps Co., Advance Publications Inc. and Donrey Media Group — said they are “seeking to create the nation’s largest, locally based Internet site for online classifieds.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The partnership projects that ClassifiedWarehouse.com’s searchable classified advertising database, which averages more than 3 million new ads per month, will grow to more than 6 million new classifieds per month by the end of the first half of the year.

The buyers renamed the New York City-based company as AdOne LLC.

“We are thrilled these blue-chip media companies have chosen to back our vision of an open network composed of locally based classified advertising from premium media properties in large, medium and small markets,” said AdOne President and CEO Brendan Burns.

“AdOne brought together this unique group of high-caliber traditional and new media companies because of their strong belief in our inclusive corporate partnership philosophy.”

The consortium was brought together as a result of a commitment in the third quarter of 1998 from MediaNews Group, as the consortium’s lead investor, coupled with strategic initiatives completed by AdOne’s management team during the third and fourth quarters of 1998.

Lycos Inc. will play an important role in the success of the new partnership through its distribution agreement with AdOne and ClassifiedWarehouse.com, the companies said.

The acquiring media consortium includes MediaNews Group, the seventh largest newspaper company in the United States; Hearst, a diversified communications company; Scripps, the nation’s 10th largest newspaper publisher; Advance Publications Inc., which publishes newspapers in 22 markets; and the 14-newspaper Donrey Media Group, a wholly owned affiliate of Stephens Group Inc. of Little Rock, AK.

AdOne said it now has backing from four of the top 10 U.S. newspaper companies and a leading Internet portal;, offering market penetration in 38 of the top 50 U.S. media markets. It also claims more than 350 affiliated media properties in the top 50 U.S. media markets.