The National Newspaper Publishers Association announced a major initiative last month to expand online publishing capabilities of African-American newspapers across the country. With the initiative, designed to address the “digital media divide,” the association hopes to vastly improve electronic news distribution for more than 200 NNPA member newspapers.

The Rapid City (Wis.) Journal, a Lee Enterprises newspaper, launched the CityXpress online Health & Wellness and Dining & Entertainment special sections on its Website at www.rapidcityjournal.com.

CityXpress also announced that Lee Enterprises is continuing to convert its previously launched CityXpress Shop Locally sites to CityXpress’ new Special Section operating platform. Recently converted sites include the (Butte) Montana Standard (www.mtstandard.com), the Winona (Minn.) Daily News (www.winonadailynews.com) and the La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune (www.lacrossetribune.com). To date, Lee has launched more than 20 special sections at eight of its online papers.

The 22 major metropolitan newspapers of the Newspaper Target Marketing Coalition joined forces to develop a unique Web site that offers advertisers and advertising agencies a new source of information for purchasing preprint advertising.