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J.D. Power and Associates reports that online use among used-vehicle buyers has jumped sharply, with 54 percent of late-model used-vehicle buyers using the Web during their shopping process. That's up from 47 percent in 2003, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2004 Used Autoshopper.com Study released on Wednesday. "This is the most explosive growth in the used-vehicle automotive Internet user rate we have seen in three years," said Dennis Galbraith, senior director of research for J.D. Power and Associates. "Not only are shoppers using the Internet in greater numbers, but also far more of them are finding their purchase decisions are impacted by information found online."

Since The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal ran an online auction in 2002, the first of its kind in the United States, these moneymakers have become increasingly popular at newspapers. More than 175 papers have held auctions since, with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News two of the latest to do so, in a highly successful joint initiative, in April. Newsday in Melville, N.Y., followed with its own auction in May.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations' summer board meeting is still in progress in Vancouver but E&P has learned that newspaper publishers and advertisers have drafted a list of action items addressing the circulation scandals that hit the industry last month.

An advertiser sued the Tribune Co. in response to the company's announcement that it inflated circulation numbers at two of its newspapers.

Olympic Carpet's lawsuit alleges that Tribune defrauded advertisers by inflating the figures. Advertising rates are commonly set according to newspaper circulation.

Catherine M. Nelson, publisher of Madison's new Core Weekly, tells reporter Judy Newman of the Wisconsin State Journal that she's not going after readers of AAN member Isthmus. But Isthmus publisher Vince O'Hern says it's obvious that the arts-and-entertainment paper backed by Capital Newspapers will try to challenge the 28-year-old weekly. In the face of competition, alt-weeklies have to be sharp and good at what they're doing, he says.

Capital Newspapers, the publisher of The Capital Times and the Wisconsin State Journal, is investing in a new arts and entertainment weekly to be distributed in the same city as longtime AAN member Isthmus. The youth-oriented Core Weekly will launch in late August, The Capital Times announced. Catherine Nelson, associate publisher of Milwaukee's The Shepherd Express, has been named Core Weekly's publisher.