Palm Beach Post Launches Classifieds “Talk to Seller” Service Powered by eStara

Reston, VA (October 18, 2005) – eStara (www.estara.com), a leading provider of communications solutions for linking buyers and sellers, today announced the first implementation of click-to-call in online newspaper classified advertising. The service, which was launched by the Palm Beach Post, will connect online classifieds visitors to sellers via the phone.

The Palm Beach Post, whose family of publications also includes the Florida Pennysaver, Palm Beach Daily News and La Palma, is a major daily newspaper with more than 681,000 weekly readers in Florida’s Palm Beach, Martin and southern St. Lucie counties.

“We’re always working with our advertisers to provide them with the best value for their dollar. One way of doing that is by adding click to call to our classifieds,” said Dan Shorter, General Manager of PalmBeachPost.com. “By clicking the ‘Talk to Seller’ icon and entering their phone number in a dialogue box, shoppers can connect with sellers to ask questions at a time when it’s convenient for them, and we’re able to track the leads we generate for our advertisers.”

Jupiter Research forecasts that spending in the U.S. for online local advertising will grow at an annual compounded rate of 11 percent over the next five years,— from $3.2 billion in 2005 to $5.3 billion in 2010. Of that, classified advertising will garner almost 70 percent of that total. (Jupiter Research, "U.S. Local Online Advertising Forecast, 2005 to 2010”)

eStara’s click to call applications have been deployed by more than 350 global enterprises and 14 million small and medium-sized (SME) companies worldwide through partners including online directories, publishers and search engines.

“Given the intensified competition for the local advertising dollar, media companies are looking for ways to prove their value and differentiate their service,” said John Piescik, COO of eStara. “eStara is very pleased to be helping the industry pioneers at the Palm Beach Post deliver this value-added service to their classified advertisers and readers.”

Already nationally recognized by Editor & Publisher and the Newspaper Association of America for excellence in online classified advertising, the Palm Beach Post continues to innovate by adding eStara’s service. They will be making the service available for free to every one of their online advertisers.

“We think there’s a lot to be said for investing in our relationship with classified advertisers,” said Shorter. “By enhancing our classified technology, we’re reminding them that their leads are being generated by the Palm Beach Post, and that helps us stand above other classified listings.”

Another analyst, Classified Intelligence, predicts that “the online classifieds industry will move from a pay-for-listing model to a pay-for-performance one. Instead of charging advertisers to post their ads, classifieds sites will get paid only if someone clicks on the ad.” Click to call technology from eStara can enable future pay-per-call classified ads, so local advertisers who don’t have web sites can receive telephone leads on a pay for performance basis.

eStara’s Track the Call service takes call measurement one step further, allowing publishers to track every call. Users can opt to use Push to Talk or to dial a tracked phone number provided by eStara. eStara’s Track the Call and Push to Talk services support all revenue models, including pay per call and flat rate pricing for both online and offline publishers.


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About eStara:
eStara (www.estara.com) develops business-to-consumer communications services for large enterprises, media companies, online directories and search engines that improve communication and collaboration, increase revenue, and enable clients to attract and retain more online customers.

eStara’s Push to Talk service is the most widely deployed "click to call" service in the world with over 3,000,000 users in 113 countries. The company serves more than 350 global enterprises across multiple industries including directory and on-line publishers and lead generation companies, financial services, retail, travel and hospitality, real estate and automotive.

eStara’s Track the Call (www.trackthecall.com) service provides a flexible, scalable call tracking and monitoring service that supports a variety of revenue models, including pay per call and subscription with the largest inventory of local numbers in the industry. eStara call tracking technology is used by search engine and directory publishers including ThomasNet, Amazon.com’s A9.com and Verizon’s Superpages.com.