CityXpress Corp., a leading global provider of newspaper auctions, announced that its media partners in 21 markets in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand sold gift certificates valued at more than $2.1 million USD in holiday auctions staged between October and December 2006. Overall, the auctions sold nearly 10,000 gift certificates. The certificates were provided by 3,352 local businesses; 1,252 or about 37 percent of these vendors were new advertisers to the participating media outlets.

CityXpress stages gift certificate auctions as a variation on its regular event auction program. Local businesses provide gift certificates for auction by the media company. When the certificates sell in the auction, the advertisers receive their face value in advertising credits while the media company keeps the selling price as revenue. Phil Dubois, President and CEO of CityXpress Corp., said, "Because just about any business can provide a gift certificate, these auctions create a very effective tool which media companies can use to attract new advertisers."

The top performer in this year's holiday auctions was the Billings Gazette, a Lee Enterprises property which pioneered gift certificate-only auctions in partnership with CityXpress. The 46,000-circulation Gazette earned more than $157,000 USD in revenue and signed 118 new vendors in its fourth gift certificate auction.

CityXpress has staged more than 600 auctions since 2002, with over 350 newspapers and media companies in North America and internationally, earning in excess of $160 million in revenue for its auction clients. The company is now signing media clients to stage gift certificate auctions in spring and summer 2007.

http://www.cityxpress.com