To fight back, papers have created vertical sites focusing on the key automotive, real-estate and employment categories. Newspaper sites often supplement their classifieds with related content ads, classifieds aggregated from a number of papers to build critical mass, and local auctions -- an interactive form of classifieds where Internet bidding sets the final price. Custom classified search agents can help track certain types of ads for users, even when the users are offline. Both searchability and aggregation are simplified by the eXtensible Markup Language, or XML.

Newspapers are also building new database-management relationships with key classified advertisers, tying their newspaper sites directly into multiple-listing service and auto-inventory databases, and accepting resumes from job seekers and providing matches to employers. The newspaper becomes an intermediary in an advertising process that can involve the printed paper, individual job seekers and even media competitors.