PUBLISHING COMPANIES KEEP ADDING TO NEW MEDIA EMPHASIS NYT Co., Gannett and Scripps all relaunch or create new on-line sites.

Multimedia companies continue to invest time and money in on-line operations, with announcements from three newspaper publishers in recent days that they are creating or relaunching web sites aimed at cornering more on-line ad dollars.

The New York Times Co., Gannett Co. Inc. and The E.W. Scripps Co., are all reaching out to better embrace the Web with new products or products that are vastly changed.

The Times Co. said on Tuesday that it has relaunched its automobile section on its web site and that the new product contains an enlarged database of more than 25,000 cars that draws on information from dealer inventories, print classified ads and on-line private party sales.

"The depth and breadth of auto information on the enhanced section cuts through the clutter of promotional web sites and makes the section a must-read for objective auto news, as well as tools and information," said Leonard Apcar, editor-in-chief of NYTimes.com.

The new site uses technology developed by CareerCast Inc., a suburban San Diego-based company that provides media companies with on-line employment, real estate and now auto advertising systems.

The redesigned section is divided into five areas, which allow users to learn more about new or used cars, do specific research on automobiles, purchase a car, find a dealer or sell a car.

The sections include content from not only the New York Times itself, but also the auto web site Edmunds.com.

The Times also said last week that it would be delivering the biggest print and on-line employment advertising section offered by the paper. The "Super Job Market" section will feature "thousands of job listings," as well as career-related information. The listings will also be provided on the NYTimes.com site.

And in other newspaper on-line auto advertising news, Cars.com -- owned by Classified Ventures LLC, whose investors include Belo Corp., Gannett, Knight Ridder, The McClatchy Co., Tribune Co. and The Washington Post Co. -- said last week that research it had commissioned shows how auto dealers are "using on-line advertising solutions to brand their dealership, merchandise their inventory and gain a competitive edge."

Cars.com will release the research next week at the National Automotive Dealers Association's annual convention in New Orleans.

"As we will present at NADA, we are seeing dealerships hone their on-line strategies, placing greater emphasis on the tactics and partners that help to drive sales," said Mitch Golub, president of Cars.com.

Though not directly tied to its newspaper endeavors, a company in which Gannett has invested said last week that it was now taking advertising on its heretofore ad-free travel web site.

LuxuryLink.com, a Los Angeles-based site, provides users with the ability to buy travel packages either through auction or directly, as well as research information about holiday travelling. It says that it delivers 8 million page views per month and that repeat buyers account for 50 percent of its travel sales.

The company -- which characterizes Gannett's investment as "a minority interest" -- said that American Express, Neiman Marcus, MGM Grand and British Airways have all signed ad contracts for the site.

Scripps' focus during the last decade hasn't necessarily been on newspapers, and its latest foray onto the World-Wide Web will have little newspaper impact, but HGTVPro.com will extend the company's new media reach.

The new web site -- a companion to the company's cable TV offering, Home & Garden Network -- is described as "video-rich," and will provide "professional grade information" to people in the building industry as well as "home enthusiasts."

"The broadband technology of today lets us deliver information to the building trades in a way it could not be done before," said Ken Lowe, president and CEO of the Cincinnati-based Scripps. "Rich video content allows HGTVPro to bridge communications gaps by providing information visually -- the way most people learn best."

Scripps says that in addition to offering 100 videos and articles on the site, the company will distribute a bi-monthly, free opt-in newsletter to which 100,000 building trade professionals as well as 500,000 non-professionals have already subscribed.

"HGTVPro provides 'prosumers' a high level of information before they undertake a building or remodeling project and gives them the tools to more confidently communicate with their builder or remodeler," said HGTV Pro Senior Vice President Jim Zarchin. "While it is a site for pros by pros, it still allows prosumers to 'peek over the fence' and better understand their builder's world."

The future may no longer be plastics, but whatever it is, it definitely will have a new media component added to it. These multimedia companies are attempting to strengthen themselves in areas where they have been weak over the last five years and leverage the ever-increasing number of on-line users that rely on trusted brand-names, like the New York Times, Cars.com, LuxuryLink and HGTV.