Four of the country's top media companies today unveiled the creation of quadrantONE, a new sales organization offering premium online advertising for companies seeking national audiences. Investors in the new network include Tribune Co., Gannett Co. Inc., Hearst Corp., and The New York Times Co., the parent company of The Boston Globe.
The network says it has a reach of nearly 50 million monthly unique visitors and covers 27 out of the top 30 markets, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. QuadrantONE offers advertising space on hundreds of local websites affiliated with these media companies, including the Globe's boston.com.
"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," said Dana Hayes, quadrantONE's interim chief executive and senior vice president for sales of Tribune Interactive. "Each participating company has agreed to dedicate advertising inventory to quadrantONE, so the network can offer customized online campaigns on a highly competitive basis. Imagine placing the same ad across hundreds of local websites on the same day with one buy - that's the power of this network."
This is the first time the newspaper industry, online or in print, has guaranteed inventory commitments with the reach and scale of this venture, making it possible to attract larger, national advertisers, said Michael Zimbalist, vice president of research and development operations for Times Co.
"By putting together every sports section of every major metro newspaper online, we can give advertisers the same kind of national footprint as when they buy space on Yahoo Sports or ESPN," he added.
Because the purpose of quadrantOne is to offer local content across a national footprint, the network does not include nytimes.com and usatoday.com. Both websites and the papers that support them - The New York Times and Gannett's USA Today - already attract a national audience, Zimbalist said.
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
