NEW YORK (AP) - Real-estate Web site Zillow.com is expanding its partnership with 282 newspapers to give national advertisers new ways to reach local markets, changes that the news companies hope will allow them to raise their fees for online ads.
The new online advertising network, expected to be announced Monday, is the latest involving traditional media companies seeking higher-priced ads for their Web sites, ads that target specific audiences and could keep brand-name advertisers from fleeing to Internet companies like Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
Zillow's offering will target advertising from real estate agents and industries looking to serve new homeowners. That could include telecommunications companies wanting to pitch new phone and Internet services and retailers wishing to sell new furniture.
Display ads can appear at Web sites run by Zillow or one of the participating newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and Denver Post. Publishing chains working with Zillow include Hearst Corp., MediaNews Group Inc., Lee Enterprises Inc. and The E.W. Scripps Co.
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 and other Internet companies.
Yahoo also has helped newspapers form an advertising consortium; initially it involved help-wanted ads, but it is now broader. 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.
National brands that spend tens of millions of dollars "traditionally wouldn't be in a position to want to call 282 papers," explained Greg Schwartz, Zillow's vice president of advertising sales.
Schwartz also said that with the weak economy, targeting ads is increasingly important because "marketers need to be more precise in how they spend ad dollars."
Zillow will use targeting technology so that real-estate and related ads can appear anywhere on a newspaper's site, not just with the real-estate section.
Zillow identifies an Internet user as a likely home buyer based on visits to its site, Schwartz said. At Zillow, Web surfers can list a home for sale or see what it might sell for. Once a home is off the market, traffic to that listing tends to come mostly from its new owner, letting Zillow flag the visiting computer as belonging to a recent home buyer.
Late last year, Zillow launched a revenue-sharing partnership with the 282 newspapers that allows them to sell classified real-estate ads on Zillow's site. The expansion extends the opportunities to graphical ads and lets Zillow place ads on newspapers' sites, too. |