Media companies team up on ad network

Cory Bergman February 15th, 2008

Gannett, Hearst, NY Times and Tribune announced today they’ve combined forces to create a national ad network called quadrantONE. “By aggregating the online audiences of quadrantONE’s participating media companies, large national advertisers can immediately access tens of millions of unique visitors in the country’s top markets,” Dana Hayes, Interim CEO, quadrantONE, and SVP for sales of Tribune Interactive, said in the announcement. “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 says quadrantONE will begin with a dedicated sales force of 17 people based in Chicago, and the network is scheduled to launch on April 1st across the members’ newspaper and TV websites (some of which are already Yahoo newspaper consortium members). All four partners in the network made undisclosed capital investments in the network. Other media partners are invited to join, but not as investors.