Thomas Crosbie Media, a division of the newspaper group which owns the Irish Examiner, is to outsource the selling of advertising space on its various websites.

Thomas Crosbie Media, the web-based subsidiary of Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH), is set to appoint Dublin firm Sales Online as its agent.

An official announcement is expected within days.

Thomas Crosbie Media owns 15 websites, including the Irish Examiner and Sunday Business Post sites.

Apart from news-led sites it also owns recruitireland.com, motornet.ie and rugby.ie. The remaining sites belong to the various local newspapers owned by TCH.

TCH does not publish a separate profit-and-loss account for its web division but the latest move indicates that it would like to see increased advertising revenue coming from this source.

Competition among web-based companies is fierce and many Thomas Crosbie Media sites are facing significant opposition.

For example, motornet.ie has to compete against the well-resourced operation of Car Buyer's Guide.

According to the Joint National Internet Research figures for 2003, Thomas Crosbie Media had two sites in the top 10: recruitireland.com and examiner.ie

Sales Online has several high-profile contracts including Myhome.ie, Ticketmaster, USIT and Yahoo.

Nobody was available from the company yesterday to discuss the Thomas Crosbie Media contract.

Founded in November 2000 by Mr Simon Ferguson, Sales Online describes itself as "the leading supplier of digital advertising in Ireland".

TCH, which owns the Irish Examiner and Sunday Business Post, recently announced plans to sell its Academy Street premises for approximately €30 million.

The company also announced plans to close its printing operations in Cork city and outsource this activity to a new printing firm in the Mahon area of Cork.