QuadrantOne Beckons Big Ad Buyers
Four Media Giants Join Forces to Sell Web Advertising Nationally
Tribune, Hearst, Gannett and the New York Times get together again to sell Internet advertising across the USA.
Four of America’s biggest media companies have formed the quadrantONE network to offer "premium advertisers" the opportunity to place "the same ad across hundreds of local Web sites on the same day with one buy."
In the news release announcing the service, interim CEO Dana Hayes said the network "can immediately access tens of millions of unique visitors in the country’s top markets."
The service will be offered by quadrantONE, an online sales network recently formed by The New York Times Company, Gannett Company, Tribune Company and Hearst Corporation. All four were among the nine media companies that established New Century Network, a similar organization that failed in the 1990s.
Jack Williams, president of Gannett Digital Ventures, added that quadrantONE will give the media industry its first opportunity "to compete effectively for advertising dollars currently going to the national portals."
quadrantOne Says it Will Attract 50 Million Visitors Monthly
The network says quadrantONE will be able to reach "nearly 50 million monthly unique visitors" by using the participating companies’ established newspaper and broadcasting websites.
It expects to provide coverage in 27 of the top 30 markets in the United States, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Houston and Phoenix.
According to the International Herald Tribune, the quadrantONE network will not include the New York Times website, but will include the Boston Globe, which is owned by the New York Times Company. Neither will it include the USA Today website, which is owned by the Gannett Company.
New Network Will Include More Than 120 Newspaper Websites
Both the New York Times and USA Today websites have their own sales staffs selling national advertising.
The new network will reportly include the websites of more than 120 newspapers and dozens of television stations.
"Each participating company has agreed to dedicate advertising inventory to quadrantONE, so the network can offer customized online campaigns on a highly competitive basis," Hayes said.
The dedication of those units will also differentiate quadrantONE from the Newspaper National Network, which markets ads on newspaper websites but does not yet have the pricing advantage of such a common pool.
New Century Network Failed in 1990s
According to Business Week (March 23, 1998) the New Century Network offered both news features and advertising in 140 papers during the 1990s. Each of the nine companies invested $1 million to start the organization, but it failed in three years.
Hayes did not reveal how much the four companies have invested in quadrantONE. He did say the network would employ 17 people.
The new network’s name refers to the upper right quadrant on a chart. Perhaps coincidentally that quadrant was also once considered the most important section of a newspaper’s front page.
Hayes is senior vice president for sales at Tribune Interactive.
