Officially launched today, the Washington Post's new Express site, the online component of the Post's free daily commuter paper, integrates local, community content with Oodle's classifieds search database, reports ClickZ. A national airline is expected to sponsor a contest on the site in May.

Users can submit free Express listings for general merchandise, roommates, for-rent-by-owner apartments and tickets; paid listings include cars, real estate, jobs and pets. Oodle is licensing its API to Express, which will display Oodle listings and enable users to create the free and paid listings.

During the soft launch, lasting a week or so, display ads will not be sold for placement on the site; instead, WashingtonPost.com ads will be placed on the Express site. WaPo hopes to get local retailers to buy neighborhood-targeted blog ads and display ads throughout the site.

"This is very much an experiment," according to Chris Ma, publisher of Express and Washington Post Company VP.