BRIEFS.

*GCI, TRB, KRI build retail research sites: Three of the country's largest newspaper publishing companies said last week that they would be launching ShopLocal, "an on-line resource that allows shoppers to research local specials and sale items at stores close to home." Gannett Co. Inc., Tribune Co. and Knight Ridder will roll out ShopLocal sites affiliated with their individual newspapers; a national site, www.ShopLocal.com, is an additional portal to the local sites. ShopLocal, a product of CrossMedia Services Inc. -- which the three media companies bought earlier this year -- uses a Zip code-based search engine that enables users to find retail stores within a specific radius. "ShopLocal shortens the distance between consumers and retailers," said CrossMedia Chief Executive Brian Hand. "Consumers ... will no longer need to go to separate web sites for all the stores they want to visit," he said.

*California papers go morning: Two of the three papers acquired earlier this year by MainStreet Media Group LLC in California's rural San Benito and Southern Santa Clara counties have switched cycles. The Dispatch of Gilroy and the Free Lance of Hollister are now distributed Tuesday through Saturday mornings; previously they were published Monday through Friday afternoons. The company's twice-weekly Morgan Hill Times will also be distributed in the morning.

*HLG director resigns: In this week's chapter of the on-going saga that is Hollinger International Inc., Richard Rohmer resigned from the board of directors of Hollinger Inc., the Toronto-based holding company that has controlling interest in Hollinger International. Rohmer, 80, resigned "for personal reasons," the company said last week. He said he had "full confidence in the company and its board." Rohmer joined the board as an independent director in January, shortly before the company's chairman, Lord Conrad Black, was ousted from his roll as chairman of Hollinger International, the Chicago-based publisher. Rohmer had been criticized last month by a Delaware court for a "lack of assertiveness" as an independent director.

*T gains 29% in ad pages: The new supplement to the New York Times Sunday Magazine, called T, will have 167 pages of advertising, the paper said, which is up 29 percent over Part 2-Women's Fashion, the Magazine supplement offered last year at this time. T, the company said, "is a new collection of magazines that will showcase stylish living today and feature the latest trends in men's and women's fashion, design and entertaining." The supplement will be published eight times per year and replaces the Magazine's Part 2 publications. "Advertisers' response to T demonstrates the ability of the Times brand to move product," said Jyll Holzman, senior vice president for advertising at the New York Times. The issue was distributed with yesterday's Sunday paper.

*DJ goes to China: Dow Jones & Co. Inc. said earlier this month that it had set up an advertising firm in China that would help mainland clients buy space in its financial publications worldwide. "As more and more Chinese companies establish themselves internationally, the savviest ones have appreciated the importance of communicating to a global audience," Jonathan Hardy, a regional executive at Dow Jones International Marketing Services, told the Associated Press. The company said the new firm, Dow Jones Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., would also help Chinese firms to get listed on stock exchanges from around the world.