US newspaper publishers launch joint online ad firm

Fri Feb 15 2008, 08:30 AM

Four top US newspaper publishers - Tribune, Gannett, Hearst and the New York Times Company - are launching a joint online ad sales firm. quadrantONE will serve ads on the online versions of all four publishers' local newspaper titles, allowing advertisers to place ads across a large, nationwide network of websites. The firm is reportedly looking to attract "premium advertisers" in a bid to boost revenue and take ad placing control away from large internet firms such as Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Under the deal, quadrantONE will sell online ad space on regional titles such as The Los Angles Times, The Boston Globe and the Houston Chronicle. However, many of the publishers' biggest titles, such as USA Today, The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, will not be included in the scheme as they are national titles. Based on Nielsen data released in Dec, quadrantONE predicts that the ads will reach 50m unique visitors a month. The firm will be Chicago-based and will employ a staff of 17.

In Nov 2006, Yahoo! signed up seven newspaper chains as part of an ad alliance. This included Hearst and represented some 176 daily papers. The alliance was designed to let US newspaper publishers list local job ads on the Yahoo!'s HotJobs site, and use the search site's targeted display ad technologies. In return, Yahoo! was able to sell ads on the newspaper group's sites. By Nov 2007 some 21 publishers had signed up to the scheme.

In the six months ending Sep 2007, sales of US daily newspapers fell 2.6%, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. This was announced at the same time that the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) said US newspaper websites generated ad revenues of USD773m in Q3 2007, representing year-on-year growth of 21.1%. The US online local ad market will generate revenues of USD12.6bn in 2008, which represents yearly growth of 48%, according to Borrell Associates.