MSNBC.com creates online ad network
Cory Bergman August 1st, 2007
Through a partnership with Pulse 360, MSNBC.com has created a unique online ad network for independent publishers. Sites that opt into the program paste “boxes” on their sites that combine MSNBC.com content with advertising from one of two sources: Today Show or politics. Publishers get a cut of the respective ad revenue, and MSNBC gets incremental revenue and traffic. “MSNBC.com will be able to aggregate thousands of member sites in its own vertical networks and represent this inventory for sale to advertisers,” explains Gina Stikes, MSNBC.com’s director of marketing. Here’s an example of a “video box” from the Today Show, the largest of three available sizes:
Sites that are interested can sign up here for the Today Show and here for politics. I’m a big fan of distributed ad networks, and combining content into the mix is an interesting twist — it’s a widget with a revenue share component. Thoughts?
Adds Rafat in comments: “I wouldn’t call this an ad network..MSNBC is merely syndicating its widgets, like everyone else, embedding ads in it and sharing ad revs…interesting for sure, but not an ad network. If MSNBC was selling ad inventory on the publishers’ sites, then that would be an ad network. And it is not truly viral..they want you to apply and they will qualify you.”
Adds Mark Josephson from Pulse 360: “The thought here is that while this phase bundles the ad inventory with the content syndication, in the (near) future as we see the network grow we can and will be separating the content from the ads. Also, the bundled ads here are MSNBCs ad tags, so they have the visibility into each discrete member and can forecast, track and sell as discretely as they do with their owned inventory on the core domain…just like a network.”
4 Comments Add your own
1. Rafat | August 1st, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Cory
I wouldn’t call this an ad network..MSNBC is merely syndicating its widgets, like everyone else, embedding ads in it and sharing ad revs…interesting for sure, but not an ad network. If MSNBC was selling ad inventory on the publishers’ sites, then that would be an ad network. And it is not truly viral..they want you to apply and they will qualify you.
2. Mark Josephson | August 2nd, 2007 at 7:10 am
Guys, thanks for the feedback here. We are very excited about the PVNs we’re rolling out with MSNBC..and more to follow.
The thought here is that while this phase bundles the ad inventory with the content syndication, in the (near) future as we see the network grow we can and will be separating the content from the ads.
Also, the bundled ads here are MSNBCs ad tags, so they have the visibility into each discrete member and can forecast, track and sell as discretely as they do with their owned inventory on the core domain…just like a network.
Big publishers need to build networks to stay competitive and this is an exciting first step.
3. thedetroitchannel | August 2nd, 2007 at 7:29 am
hey, i thought i read that nbbc was shut down.
4. Rick Ellis | August 2nd, 2007 at 8:32 am
It’s an interesting idea, and I’ll probably play around with at least The Today Show part of the concept to see if it matches well with our TV-focused site.
I don’t have a problem using these types of video-oriented widgets, but I’ve found in the past that they tend to be much too kitchen-sink in their approach to video (i.e., news, sports, weather and entertainment all mixed together). Or they aren’t updated frequently enough to stay relevant.
For instance, while it’s not widget-based, I love the Voxant video service from TheNewsroom.com. But in the TV video channel, it often isn’t updated frequently enough or has deep enough content for our use.
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