Into new territory: companies set to tread on times' turf with launch of LA.com.

When it formally launches this week after months Of tweaking, LA.com is aimed at being an "insider's guide" for "people on the go who want to go everywhere."

That's quite a task for a site being run by the ultimate L.A. newspaper outsider, William Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group. The company, which owns the Daily News, Pasadena Star-News and Long Beach Press-Telegram, has pretty much steered clear of downtown and the Westside, at safe distance from the dominant Los Angeles Times.

For MediaNews, the Web site is a toe-dip outside of its confines in Long Beach, San Bernardino and the San Fernando Valley in an effort to nab readers and advertisers.

The project is also being driven by an expectation that Internet advertising will eventually be a viable source of revenues. Some already have noted a rebound. The Interactive Advertising Bureau reported that ad revenues for the last three months of 2003 rose 38 percent, to $2.2 billion.

"[LA.com] wouldn't have been launched a few years ago," admitted Lynda Keeler, a former HBO and Sony Corp. executive who is LA.com's president.

While interactive banner advertising still isn't sufficient for any Web site to pay the bills, more sophisticated methods of pulling in dollars have been put into use since the Internet ad market tanked in 2000 and 2001.

Selling keywords on its search engine will be one advertising lure for LA.com. Another: Special interactive packages such as the "Weekend Planner" that will let a visitor create an itinerary complete with special discounts based on, say, whether a sister is coming to town with kids. A "moving guide" will give real estate agents a chance to shop themselves to users who are deciding between living in Pacific Palisades or Culver City.

Local bet

MediaNews bought the domain name in 2002 from two Las Vegas Internet entrepreneurs who had plans for an online guide. Betting that it could create a locals-only city site, MediaNews hired Keeler, then lured Laurie Pike, who was editor of Tribune Co.'s Distinction magazine during its first couple of issues. (Tribune also owns the Times.)

Besides some 5,000 nightclub, restaurant and shopping listings, the site has features on neighborhoods and a list of suggestions on parking in the city. It's also added a Weblog called LA.comfidential, which features local gossip, such as a bit on "Sex and the City" star Kim Cattrell starring in a stage show performed by the Groundlings, the sketch comedy troupe.

If it succeeds, LA.com will help MediaNews break into the heart of Los Angeles. Among the Denver-based publisher's eight local newspapers, only the Daily News has some small penetration into the city's midsection and the youthful readers that national advertisers crave.

"We don't reach into Hollywood or Westwood or the beach cities. We don't reach many younger readers. This fills the hole in our doughnut," said Eric Grilley, president of MediaNews Goup Interactive, which oversees the site. Grilley is son of the company's chief operating officer, Gerald Grilley.

Cross marketing

MediaNews' local papers are starting to package advertising on LA.com with their own print offerings, while the site's three-person staff is playing up its link to the papers. LA.com has already lured one big-named advertiser, credit card giant American Express Co., which is advertising its Blue card on the site. It's also looking to hire an ad executive who can round up nightclub owners as well.

But the online guide market hasn't exactly been a moneymaker. Two years ago, newspaper giant Cox Enterprises shut down its collection of 24 sites--including LAInsider.com--after several years of losses. Online guide pioneer Citysearch, a division of InterActiveCorp, which dominates the market, hasn't made money since its formation, Chairman Barry Diller said in a conference call last month.

Part of the problem is that visitors only frequent the site when they are searching for a restaurant or movie listing. To make money a site would have to keep the audience around for a few clicks.

"Audience is underestimated in this business. Without the audience, you're not going to get advertisers," said Mack Reed, who ran LAInsider before it was shut down in 2002 (and who was a losing candidate for the LA.com editor' s job).

Grilley admits it may take as long as five years for MediaNews to recoup its investment, but he says that the site is "as much a strategic play as it is a revenue play."

Keeler said her staff has come up with ways to keep eyeballs on the site. One of them is LA.comfidential, which allows readers to comment on the blog's postings. The site is also getting help from public radio's KCRW-FM (89.9); it will have a section dedicated to station members featuring information on discounts. For club-hoppers who are a target for the site, it may offer streaming video of action behind the velvet rope.

To garner more attention, LA.com will launch a series of fashion shows at the end of March that will coincide with the spring edition of Fashion Week. Another possibility: A social networking section a la Friendster, in which visitors would have their own pages with links to other users.

"We have to add things such as our blogs and personality profiles to bring people here, to let them get connected to the vibrancy of L.A.," said Keeler.