Zillow, Newspapers Launch Real Estate Ad Network; Looking To Each Other's Strengths

(PaidContent.org)  This story was written by Staci D. Kramer.

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Last fall, 11 newspaper publishers agreed to let real estate upstart Zillow.com carry the real estate listings from their 282 papers. Now, the Zillow Newspaper Consortium, which includes Hearst and Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE), and the price-comparison site are launching a real estate ad network with the right to sell ads on each other's sites. The newspapers can sell Zillow, with national traffic averaging some 5 million uniques monthly, while VC-funded Zillow can target local real estate users and sell some additional national inventory across the newspaper sites. Other publishers involved include Media General (NYSE: MEG) , Inc.; MediaNews Group, Inc.; Morris Communications Company, Philadelphia Media Holdings; and The E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP) Company. Newspapers include The Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the San Jose Mercury News. This is not to be confused with the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Newspaper Consortium, although many members are the same. Both efforts are among the many newspaper-web experiments as national sites try to go local and publishers look for online ad growth.

AP: "Newspapers hope they can charge more for online ads by connecting advertisers with the visitors most likely to buy their products. By forming networks, they are giving advertisers the type of one-stop service that is the specialty of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and other Internet companies. ... Some newspapers, magazines and broadcasters also belong to graphical ad networks targeting parenting, lifestyles, finances and other topics, but those tend to either be smaller or involve partnerships with independent blogs."


By Staci D. Kramer