The media giant will start by adding the ads to The Baltimore Sun's Web site in February. all other Tribune papers, including The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune, will feature Topix ads on their sites by the end of May. Topix will use Google AdSense technology to sell text ads on its classified Web pages and will share the revenue with Tribune.

However,Topix will not take ads for cars, jobs and real estate, the three most lucrative classified ad categories. For those listings, Tribune's Web sites will continue to use each paper's existing paid real-estate ads as well as CareerBuilder.com, Apartments.com and Cars.com, all three of which Tribune has a stake in. Topix began providing free classified ads last June for readers of its own news service. Those ads will be merged with free listings posted through Tribune's Web sites in their respective geographic markets, said Mike Markson, vice president of business development for Topix. Tribune is the first large newspaper company to sign on to Topix's free classified service and sees the partnership as a way to generate more traffic to its Web properties.

This is not the first time the newspaper and broadcasting conglomerate has provided free classified ads. In 2005, Tribune tried using its Recycler.com Web site as a platform through which to offer free online classifieds in about a dozen markets where the company has newspapers and TV stations. While the site generates brisk traffic in its home market of greater Los Angeles, the expanded venture never gained much traction elsewhere. Tribune shuttered the effort outside of Southern California last year. http://www.forbes.com/digitalentertainment/2007/01/28/tribune-craigslist-topix-tech-media-cx_lh_0129classifieds.html; January 29, 2007