Phoenix, Ariz. — September 29, 2005 — With the addition of Boston’s Weekly Dig and the Pittsburgh City Paper, backpage.com is now licensed to newspapers in 30 major U.S. markets. Twenty-two markets are now live with eight additional ones launching within 30 days.
“We have had tremendous success with the backpage.com product in the 18 months since we launched the first site in Phoenix: said Scott Spear, Senior Vice President of New Times Media, parent company of Backpage.com. “We have a business model that combines the popularity of free classified bulletin boards with multiple revenue opportunities for the affiliated papers.”
“Craigslist is the Home Depot of classifieds and Backpage is rapidly becoming the Lowes”, said Carl Ferrer, Creator of backpage.com and its Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “Both sites work. It becomes a matter of creating loyal users who prefer your site.”
The site continues to make substantial investments in development and averages five enhancements per week. “Development never stops. With multiple partners, we are in a good position to do it efficiently”, said Ferrer.
“Our strengths include being more user friendly, innovative branding for the paper, a web based marketing program, and our use of Google to drive revenue and ad count”, said Ferrer. Last month 190,000 users discovered the site through Google and he credits the growth to growing quality content and the Site’s technology.
In August, the backpage.com network exceeded 25 million page views. “By year’s end we expect to triple our monthly page views and have 50 to 60 major markets up and running.” said Spear. “This will give us the national footprint we envisioned and position us as the other player in the free classified market.”
For more information contact:
Scott Spear, Senior Vice President, New Times
Media 602-229-8410
scott.spear@newtimes.com
Carl Ferrer, Vice President Marketing and Sales, Backpage.com
602-229-8512
carl.ferrer@newtimes.com
Mary Farmer
Building Manager/Corporate Administrator
New Times Media, LLC
Ofc: 602-238-4810
Fax: 602-407-1717
