- Impact
- 105
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122227927820971905.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO
Yahoo Inc. pushed out a significant upgrade to its online advertising system as the Internet portal aims to regain online ad share from competitors.
The Sunnyvale, Calif., company -- which has been pouring resources into the new system for years -- said Wednesday that the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News will begin using the new service.
At an event in New York, Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang described the new service, known as APT, as a "game-changer" and said the technology -- which attempts to streamline the process of buying display advertising online -- will help Yahoo and others make more off selling display ads.
Doing so is critical for Yahoo, which is under the gun to prove it can speed up its revenue growth. The company has lost search ad market share to Google Inc. and display ad market share to a number of competitors including social-networking sites like MySpace, which is owned by News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
Initially, Yahoo's service allows partners, like newspapers, to use its targeting technology to sell ads on their own Web sites, allowing them to charge higher rates by delivering more relevant ads. Over time, Yahoo's APT customers will be able to sell advertising across other publishers who join the system as well as Yahoo's own sites. In return, Yahoo hopes the third parties will be able to sell some of its advertising space for potentially higher prices by finding more interested buyers.
While the technology is currently built as a tool for sales representatives, Yahoo president Sue Decker said in an interview that Yahoo will build a self-service version for agencies and advertisers who want to buy inventory directly from participating publishers as well.
It hopes to have several hundred newspapers using the technology by the end of the year and to open it up to other advertisers, publishers, networks and agencies in 2009. Yahoo executives said the company wouldn't fully integrate its own advertising into the system until next year.
Some who have tested the service are already giving it good reviews.
"It is already beginning to ease our pain," said William Dean Singleton, vice chairman and chief executive of MediaNews Group, which owns the San Jose Mercury News. Mr. Singleton, who was onstage with Yahoo executives at the event, declined to say how much of a revenue improvement the San Jose Mercury News had seen in testing the service so far, but said that Yahoo's targeting capabilities have allowed it to charge higher rates for the large swaths of inventory it currently sells on the cheap.
By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO
Yahoo Inc. pushed out a significant upgrade to its online advertising system as the Internet portal aims to regain online ad share from competitors.
The Sunnyvale, Calif., company -- which has been pouring resources into the new system for years -- said Wednesday that the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News will begin using the new service.
At an event in New York, Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang described the new service, known as APT, as a "game-changer" and said the technology -- which attempts to streamline the process of buying display advertising online -- will help Yahoo and others make more off selling display ads.
Doing so is critical for Yahoo, which is under the gun to prove it can speed up its revenue growth. The company has lost search ad market share to Google Inc. and display ad market share to a number of competitors including social-networking sites like MySpace, which is owned by News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
Initially, Yahoo's service allows partners, like newspapers, to use its targeting technology to sell ads on their own Web sites, allowing them to charge higher rates by delivering more relevant ads. Over time, Yahoo's APT customers will be able to sell advertising across other publishers who join the system as well as Yahoo's own sites. In return, Yahoo hopes the third parties will be able to sell some of its advertising space for potentially higher prices by finding more interested buyers.
While the technology is currently built as a tool for sales representatives, Yahoo president Sue Decker said in an interview that Yahoo will build a self-service version for agencies and advertisers who want to buy inventory directly from participating publishers as well.
It hopes to have several hundred newspapers using the technology by the end of the year and to open it up to other advertisers, publishers, networks and agencies in 2009. Yahoo executives said the company wouldn't fully integrate its own advertising into the system until next year.
Some who have tested the service are already giving it good reviews.
"It is already beginning to ease our pain," said William Dean Singleton, vice chairman and chief executive of MediaNews Group, which owns the San Jose Mercury News. Mr. Singleton, who was onstage with Yahoo executives at the event, declined to say how much of a revenue improvement the San Jose Mercury News had seen in testing the service so far, but said that Yahoo's targeting capabilities have allowed it to charge higher rates for the large swaths of inventory it currently sells on the cheap.
