CityXpress Corp., a leading provider of online auctions for newspapers, will launch a multi-market travel auction this fall that will enable newspapers, their advertisers and their readers across North America to participate in a single, large-scale travel auction.

GetAwayXpress, CityXpress' Travel MarketPlace, will aggregate travel items from dozens of newspaper markets into a common auction site that will be promoted as a single event auction conducted over a 10-day period in late September and early October. This model enables local and regional advertisers to gain expanded exposure across North America, regardless of geographic location.

"Travel is one of the most popular and successful categories in the event auctions run by CityXpress, and it's an advertising category that newspapers are anxious to penetrate better and more effectively," said Phil Dubois, CEO of CityXpress. "GetAwayXpress is a perfect vehicle for both newspapers and travel organizations that advertise in newspapers. Advertisers can expand geographic reach, thereby enabling newspapers to offer a much higher value proposition to those advertisers."

Newspaper readers flock to the travel category in single-market event auctions conducted by CityXpress, Dubois said, bidding on everything from exotic cruises to regional weekend getaways and local hotel packages. Historically, the category realizes a 70 percent sell-through of auction items, well above the average sell-through for other items in a newspaper event auction.

CityXpress recently announced a strategic relationship with Knight Ridder, the nation's second largest newspaper publisher, to be the exclusive provider of online auctions for its newspapers.

http://www.cityxpress.com