Yahoo, MySpace Launch Ad Initiatives (PC Magazine)
Chloe Albanesius - PC Magazine Wed Sep 24, 12:09 PM ET
Yahoo on Wednesday announced an upgraded online advertising platform that promises to streamline the ad-buying process.
The platform, dubbed APT, will launch initially with The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Jose Mercury News as partners.
The idea is to connect publishers, advertisers, agencies, networks, partners and developers on a unified platform, Yahoo said.
The Internet company will provide APT participants with behavioral and geographical targeting data, among other things.
"One of the major benefits of APT from Yahoo is the fact that it's an open system, designed to enable advertisers to reach their audiences in their favorite places across the Web, and publishers to monetize inventory across the broadest possible demand channels," Yahoo president Sue Decker said, in a statement.
In November 2006, Yahoo launched its Newspaper Consortium with more than 150 papers that was designed to deliver search, graphical and classified advertising to consumers in the communities where they live and work. It now has 784 member papers, which will be integrated into APT over the next several months and into 2009.
Yahoo will expand APT to advertisers, publishers, networks and agencies next year, the company said.
Meanwhile, MySpace this week quietly launched a beta, self-service ad program. The offering, found at advertise.myspace.com, is intended to help businesses promote themselves across the social networking site.
Companies select their audience, determine how long the ad will run, and specify how much money they wish to spend. Users will not pay to list their advertisement; they will only be charged when someone clicks on the ad and visits a profile to learn more. Pricing runs from $25 up to $10,000.
"We will keep showing your ad on MySpace until your campaign has reached its expiration date, or you have reached your spending limit," MySpace said.
Ads will be targeted to MySpace users with profile information or Internet Protocol addresses that correspond to the targeting options selected by the advertiser.