Mother Proof Joins the Cars.com Family

Cars.com's New Channel Offers Car-Shopping Advice for Women, by Women

    CHICAGO, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Cars.com (http://www.cars.com) today
 announced a new addition to its family of sites: Mother Proof
 (http://www.motherproof.com). Launched in 2004 by mother and entrepreneur
 Kristin Varela, Mother Proof is dedicated to providing women --
 particularly mothers -- with useful, entertaining new-car content created
 by women, for women. Motherproof.com will continue to operate as a separate
 website, and Cars.com will add Mother Proof as a featured channel to its
 site to offer female shoppers unbiased, practical new-car reviews and
 advice based on what's important to them as women and mothers.
     "Cars.com recognized Mother Proof as the authority on women's car
 shopping and family car reviews, and we wanted to bring this unique
 perspective to our site visitors," said Patrick Olsen, managing editor of
 Cars.com. "The Mother Proof channel complements our existing resources,
 offering a key segment of car shoppers expert advice from mom-reviewers who
 have walked in their shoes and driven a car the same way they will."
     As the fastest growing segment of automotive consumers, women purchase
 53 percent of new cars and influence 85 percent of all car sales, yet their
 perspective has been underrepresented in traditional car reviews. Varela
 started Mother Proof after her own experience trying to find the right car
 for her growing family. She found that a short test drive and existing
 content didn't provide her with the information that was important to her.
 She wanted to know which vehicles were easiest to install child car seats
 and load children into, which ones had the most functional storage
 compartments and which ones were most comfortable for a woman to drive, but
 this information was not readily available. Today, Mother Proof fills the
 information void, providing vehicle recommendations from a woman's point of
 view.
     "Since the launch of Mother Proof, we have raised the visibility of the
 female shopper and the issues that are important to this group of drivers,"
 Varela said. "In addition to helping thousands of women and moms make
 vehicle decisions that are right for them and their families, we have
 helped to increase manufacturers' attention to the features and details
 that increase the safety, convenience and comfort of their automobiles for
 today's families. By joining Cars.com, we have an exciting opportunity to
 broaden the reach of Mother Proof, making our reviews and content more
 readily available to the millions of in-market car shoppers that visit
 Cars.com each month."
     About Mother Proof:
     Mother Proof(TM) (http://www.motherproof.com) provides online car
 reviews and information aimed at the fastest growing segment of automotive
 consumers: women and mothers. The site was launched in 2004 by Kristin
 Varela, a young mother of two, when she was in need of a new car and
 couldn't find information that was important to her and her family. Now
 part of the Cars.com family, Mother Proof's team of mom-reviewers continues
 in a never-ending quest for the quintessential mom-mobile, searching for
 vehicles that make grocery shopping and preschool pickup just a little
 easier.
     About Cars.com
     Cars.com is the most comprehensive destination for those looking to buy
 or sell a new or used car. The site lists more than 2 million vehicles from
 13,000 dealer customers, classified advertisers and private parties to
 offer the more than 9 million unique visitors who log on to the site each
 month the best selection of new and used cars online, as well as the
 content, tools and advice to support their shopping experience. Cars.com
 combines powerful inventory search tools and new-car configuration with
 pricing information, photo galleries, buying guides, side-by-side
 comparison tools, original editorial content and reviews to help millions
 of car shoppers connect with sellers each month.
     Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures,
 LLC, (http://classifiedventures.com), which is owned by leading media
 companies, including Belo ( BLC), Gannett Co., Inc. ( GCI), The
 McClatchy Company ( MNI), Tribune Company ( TRB) and The
 Washington Post Company ( WPO).
 
 

SOURCE Cars.com