By Kenneth Li
NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp's (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Internet division plans to launch an online network to sell advertising across Rupert Murdoch's sprawling empire and even to other media companies as early as the first half of next year.
Fox Interactive Media (FIM) President Peter Levinsohn told the Reuters Media Summit in New York on Monday that the network, internally dubbed "FIM Serve," is the subject of discussion across the company after first being built for its MySpace online social network.
"We're well down the path in terms of discussions with some of the other News Corp properties to do ad serving," Levinsohn said. "Ultimately we'll take the company off network and become an ad network for assets outside of the News Corporation empire."
"It could happen as early as the first half of next year," he said. "We're ready to go ... we're starting to have conversations outside now."
The launch of a broader ad network follows a frenzied buying spree of privately held ad networks by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Time Warner Inc's (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) AOL and Google Inc (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to dominate the fastest-growing segment of the global advertising industry.
As marketers eye threats of a U.S. recession in 2008, media like the Internet that stress accountability in terms of user responses would weather such storms better, Levinsohn said.
He noted that the ad network focuses on graphical display advertising and would not conflict with the company's partnership with Google, which provides search listings.
Fox Interactive's network could also be used eventually to sell ads across wireless outlets, he added. Continued...
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