Click-to-call and click-to-chat solutions provider eStara announced that Cox Newspapers is embedding eStara click-to-call technology in the websites of all of its newspaper properties.

Cox - which owns the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Austin American Statesman, among others - is the first multi-newspaper owner to offer click-to-call services across all of its properties, throughout classified advertising, customer service and advertising sales pages, eStara said.

"Our most recent forecast indicates that performance-based advertising, which includes pay-per-call and click-to-call services like eStara's, will account for 26 percent of traditional directional ad revenues by 2010," said Matt Booth, SVP, Interactive Local Media, The Kelsey Group.

The Palm Beach Post, a Cox property, last year rolled out its Talk to Seller program, becoming the first newspaper to connect buyers to online classifieds advertisers using click to call. For that program, the paper won the Newspaper Association of America's Digital Edge Award for "Best Advertising Program, Circulation 100,000 to 249,999."