Canadian Newspaper Site Chain Canoe Making Big Classifieds Push

By: E&P Staff Canoe Inc, the company that runs Web networks for the Canadian newspaper publisher Sun Media Corporation, said Tuesday that veteran classified advertising executive Stefan St-Laurent will head up a new effort to revamp its classified offerings.

St-Laurent, who takes the title general manager/classified ads, was most recently involved in product development for Services Internet Autolinq, which launched the Auto123.com car site.

"The classifieds market has strong potential for Canoe, particularly since our sister company Sun Media Corporation, also a Quebecor Media subsidiary, is one of Canada's largest newspaper publishers," Canoe said in a statement.

St-Laurent has been hired to develop a new and more effective e-classifieds site that is more closely integrated with Sun Media papers, Canoe said. "The goal is to establish Canoe as a leader in the broader classifieds market, just as its jobboom.com, autonet.ca, reseaucontact.com and micasa.ca sites have become leaders in their advertising niches.

The new classifieds site would be launched soon, Canoe said.

Canoe has been on a hiring spree in recent months. "Since the beginning of 2006, we have hired more than 110 professionals, including some 20 managers and executives, demonstrating not only our growth in the Montreal and Toronto markets but also our ability to attract top-notch professionals who are committed to improving Canoe's product line and strengthening its competitive position in the Internet services market," President and CEO Bruno Leclaire said in a prepared statement.

The Canoe Network includes content sites Canoe.ca, Canoe.qc.ca, La Toile du Quebec (toile.com), LCN (lcn.canoe.com), Canoe Money (money.canoe.com) and the TVA sites (tva.canoe.com).

Canoe said the network attracts 6,742,000 unique visitors per month, almost half of whom are Francophone. The Canoe Network also offers on-line services in the fields of employment (jobboom.com), continuing education (formation.jobboom.com), automobiles (autonet.ca), personals (flirt.canoe.ca and reseaucontact.com) and real estate (micasa.ca).