Traditional Media Team With Niche Sites

USA Today:

Looking to snare a larger share of Internet ad dollars, traditional media companies are launching “vertical ad networks” in which they sell ad bundles of space on their sites and on independent sites with complementary content.

Forbes.com’s Business and Finance Blog Network, announced last week, includes more than 450 finance-focused blogs, such as Talking Biz News and Xconomy. Forbes will sell ad space across that network, earning a cut of the revenue from the sites.

It hopes to attract advertisers by featuring blogs that have been prescreened for “credible” content, says Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has put together an ad network — known as Martha’s Circle — that’s made up of 25 lifestyle-focused sites such as FriendsEat.com and Christmas-Cookies.com.

The rise in vertical ad networks comes as traditional media companies, particularly publishers, try to compete for online ad revenue with giants such as Yahoo and Google. The massive reach of those companies gives them an advantage in luring big chunks of the $20 billion-plus being spent annually on Internet advertising, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

While vertical ad networks can’t match the reach of a Google or Yahoo, they offer advertisers “a more targeted audience” with selected sites that are aligned with the network’s overall theme, says Joelle Kaufman, Adify’s head of media operations.

While vertical ad networks are a relatively new concept, many more are expected to sprout this year. Kaufman predicts that this year will bring “tremendous interest from media companies and entrepreneurs — as well as from advertisers — who want to reach the right audience.”

Photo by Peter Kramer.

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