News Corp.’s Ad Network To Court Financial Sites
New York – News Corp. is grouping some of its Web sites, is introducing a global network to sell financial advertising targeting Latin America on Web sites gained in the purchase of Dow Jones & Co., part of Chairman Rupert Murdoch’s effort to exploit the $5.2 billion acquisition.
It is the most recent traditional media company to launch an ad network for serving Web sites sells higher-priced ads targeted to specific audiences, such as parents or travel enthusiasts, keeping brand-name advertisers from fleeing to larger Internet companies like Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
The new “Worthnet.Fox” network, announced Monday, will be anchored by News Corp.’s Fox International Channels. Participants include Web sites for The Wall Street Journal Digital Network — including The Wall Street Journal Online, Barron’s Online and MarketWatch — will be among the key media partners available on Worthnet.Fox, all of which News Corp. acquired through its December acquisition of Dow Jones & Co.
The network is planned to target a growing class of executives who spend time in myriad global regions, as economic borders dissolve amid international expansion.
“The economy has grown around the world and has helped create a new global affluent individual,” Hernan Lopez, chief operating officer of Fox International Channels, said in an interview.
This marks the first vertical network launched by .FOX Networks, the year old unit focused on providing quality inventory to advertisers outside the U.S. Worthnet.Fox will seek to capitalize on a growing community of avid followers of the markets, including both traditional and new global affluent individuals, many of the latter coming from the emerging economies.
“We anticipate WorthNet to be delivering 20 percent of the total revenue of .FOX Networks by the end of the year,” Lopez said in an interview. “There are new, global affluent consumers, from the local head of a multinational in India to a programmer who moves from China to Silicon Valley and creates a company. WorthNet will put luxury brands in front of those people.”
The network, which lets clients place ads on all the sites at once, would not affect ads in the U.S. and Japan, where the Journal’s digital operation has sales teams.
News Corp. is reserving 10 sales people to the effort, out of a total .FOX staff of 190, Lopez said. The network will work with 25 sites that do not belong to the company, including the finance sections of Web portals and sites owned by non-U.S. newspapers, he added.
In addition, Worthnet.Fox will be an ideal marketing channel for sellers of luxury and inspirational goods and services. “Of 46,000 publicly traded companies around the world, 20,000 come from emerging economies –- and nearly half of these went public in the last five years.”
Furthermore, FIC also has direct television sales teams in most of those locations plus Lisbon, Sophia, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Moscow, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkatta, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Dubai and Sydney.
Other recently launched media ad networks include the lifestyles-focused Martha’s Circle from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. and a collection of hundreds of independent financial blogs assembled by the online unit of Forbes Inc.