ATLANTA – Febuary 5, 2002 – /PRNewswire/ – Network Communications, Inc. (NCI), one of the world’s largest providers of real estate advertising and publishing (The Real Estate Book®, New Home Finder™, Apartment Blue Book®/Apartment Finder Blue Book™, Unique Homes® and others), and Citysearch, a leading local network and one of the core businesses operated by Ticketmaster (Nasdaq: TMCS – news), entered into an agreement with Builder Homesite, Inc. (BHI), a consortium of America’s leading homebuilders. BHI, Inc. will provide new homes content to NCI and Citysearch’s co-branded Web site, LivingChoices.com. The real estate site will benefit builders and consumers alike by offering an extensive search environment for new homes on the market.
LivingChoices.com provides real estate content including homes for sale, new construction, luxury properties, apartment homes, proximity searches, enhanced listings and advertiser profiles. With this new alliance, Builder Homesite, Inc., through their Web site, NewHomeSource.com, will offer its unique search engine capabilities and rich features to the new homes section of LivingChoices.com.
“The relationships developed through this alliance with NCI and Citysearch allow us to continue to deliver on our mission to offer builders and consumers the best products, tools and services to make finding, owning and living in a new home easier, simpler and more convenient,” said Tim Costello, CEO of Builder Homesite, Inc.
“Traffic to Citysearch’s Real Estate section has increased by nearly 400% since April, demonstrating that our nearly six million monthly unique users desire this content,” said Dan Marriott, president of Citysearch. “Citysearch’s goal is to provide users with information that helps save them time and money, and by expanding the new homes content on this popular section, we are further executing upon this goal.”
Builder Homesite, Inc., which lists properties of 63 homebuilders and represents 40 percent of homes built in major U.S. markets last year, is using its innovative search engine combined with its content listings to expand LivingChoices.com. “We are enthusiastic about the opportunities we are creating with Builder Homesite, Inc. and Citysearch,” stated Jay McDonald, president and CEO of NCI. “This alliance brings consumers a richer new home search environment, more robust content to LivingChoices.com, and generates valuable, new leads for our clients, allowing us to compete and excel at an even higher level.”
About Network Communications, Inc.
Headquartered in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Network Communications, Inc. is one of the country’s largest privately held multimedia communications companies. NCI is the leading publisher and provider of printed and online real estate information in North America. The company distributes more than 10 million magazines each month representing more than 500 markets in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Network Communications’ publications include: The Real Estate Book®, New Home Finder(TM), Unique Homes® Magazine, Mature Living Choices®, Apartment Blue Book®, Apartment Finder Blue Book(TM), CorporateChoices.com(TM), The Luxury Real Estate Book(TM) and Commercial and Investment Properties(TM) as well as private label magazines for over 30 real estate agencies. NCI, combined with its Walton Press subsidiary is also the largest printer in the state of Georgia, printing for over 260 other publishers throughout the U.S. For more information, visit their Website www.LivingChoices.com
About Citysearch
Citysearch (www.citysearch.com) is a leading local network enabling people to get the most out of their city. Providing online city guides for 128 cities worldwide, citysearch.com helps people find and plan what they want to do and then lets them take action, offering local transactions such as buying event tickets and making hotel and restaurant reservations online. Citysearch is one of the core businesses operated by Ticketmaster.
About Builder Homesite, Inc. and NewHomeSource.com
Founded in Austin, TX in 2000 by a consortium of 32 of the nation’s largest homebuilders, Builder Homesite, Inc. (BHI) represents over 225,000 new home sales annually. BHI’s mission is to offer improved technology and marketing solutions for the new home industry. The first product by Builder Homesite is NewHomeSource.com, a consumer website offering the most comprehensive information and selection of new homes available on the Internet. Because of the extensive distribution network, more and more builders are making BHI their entry point into the Internet. By providing data to New Home Source, builders can also participate in BHI online partner channels, including Yahoo, eBay, CitySearch, Homegain, newspaper and realtor websites.
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