Tech & Biz

Traditional Media Companies Getting into the Ad Network Business (Finally?)

by biverson | March 24, 2008 at 06:04 am

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We see the music business waking up to the file sharing model. Now media companies have "seen" that ad networks can mean revenue. Remember the joke about the beautiful but blind horse? The horse "no look so good." In this case, the MSM companies didn't look so good in ignoring web-enabled advertising tools. Martha is betting on her brand, and that they aren't too late to the party. With the economy stalling, it will be an interesting year for many businesses, including these fledgling ad networks.

media companies are forming networks among themselves. In February, Gannett Co. and Tribune Co., the nation's two largest newspaper publishers, joined Hearst Corp. and The New York Times Co. to form QuadrantOne to collectively sell some online ads. On Thursday, QuadrantOne said another 26 newspaper companies have joined.

The latest, Forbes Inc., is expected to announce Monday that it will start selling ads this spring for about 400 financial blogs. In recent months, Conde Nast, Viacom Inc., CBS Corp. and other major media companies also have unveiled topic-specific ad networks to lure advertisers that want to buy more ads than any single site can sell.