CityXpress announced an agreement with Northcliffe Newspaper Group Ltd. to host 16 auctions in the United Kingdom during the next 10 months. The agreement follows the completion of two successful auctions earlier this year with the Bristol Evening Post and the Hull Daily Mail, both published by Northcliffe.

CityXpress says it has generated more than $50 million in revenue for newspapers in the past two years from its event auction program. Newspaper auctions are online events staged by newspapers with goods and services provided by local retailers in exchange for exposure through the auction and advertising credits that are earned if the retailer's items sell. Auctions typically take place during a 10-day period. The company says auction events help newspapers attract new advertisers and generate incremental revenue from existing advertisers, while boosting in-store traffic for vendors and producing good deals for consumers.

The Bristol auction was the first international initiative for CityXpress and attracted 84 advertisers, 40 of which were new. The Hull auction attracted 106 advertisers, 41 of them new.

CityXpress has also staged two successful auctions with newspapers in Bern and Aarau, Switzerland. The Berner Zeitung auction, held in June, generated $348,242 (CHF) (approximately $275,000 USD) in revenue and sold 80 percent of the products available for bidding; 55 percent of the advertisers were new. The Aargauer Zeitung auction closes on Sept. 29, 2004.

"Based on the tremendous success of our initial auctions in England and Switzerland, we plan to increase our efforts in Europe," said Phil Dubois, president and CEO of CityXpress. "While our initial focus will be on England and Germany, we hope to eventually expand to more countries as the auctions continue to prove to be successful."

To service the increased number of international auctions, CityXpress will begin hiring European sales and training staff in October, beginning with a U.K. sales representative, said Dubois. In German-speaking markets, CityXpress is working with Norbert Specker of Catchup! Communications AG, the authorized CityXpress reseller for these markets.

http://www.cityxpress.com