Big newspaper publishers join new ad network
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Several top U.S. newspaper publishers said on Thursday they will devote online advertising space to a new network that wants to make it easier to place ads on hundreds of newspapers' Web sites at a time.
The network, quadrantONE, said it will get space from 138 sites and represent more than 250 newspapers.
Publishers joining the network include AH Belo Corp, McClatchy Co, Media General Inc and EW Scripps Co. Also joining the network will be Cox Communications, which publishes the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Denver Post publisher MediaNews Group Inc.
QuadrantONE, which debuted in February, is designed for newspaper publishers to capture money that advertisers are taking away from printed newspapers and moving online as they see more people spending their time on the Internet.
The privately held company was founded and is owned by Gannett Co Inc, San Francisco Chronicle publisher Hearst Corp, The New York Times Co and Tribune Co, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.
Larger publishers employ sales staff who sell ad space across multiple papers, Web sites and local television stations, but smaller papers do not always have those resources. Sometimes advertisers prefer to avoid those papers instead of calling hundreds at a time to buy space.
The papers joining quadrantONE are members of a group formed with Yahoo Inc that is devoted, in part, to raising ad revenue at newspaper Web sites and helping Yahoo to tap local U.S. ad markets more effectively.
(Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
