The News Corporation likes to spread its favors out evenly, at least that’s the impression we get from the decision by Rupert Murdoch’s to let Microsoft take care of serving the advertising for its shiny new toy, the Wall Street Journal digital network.
It was only 18 months ago when Murdoch’s organization decided instead on Google as an advertising partner for its MySpace property, with the search giant bidding a guaranteed $900 million and while this may not involve as much inventory, the deal is just as prestigious and the premium readers the envy of the advertising world.
Microsoft will now be the exclusive third-party provider of contextual and paid search advertising for its network of sites, and that includes The Wall Street Journal Online, Barrons.com, MarketWatch.com, AllThingsD.com and others.
It may also mean that Microsoft is finally making the kind of strides in being capable of delivering targeted advertising which relies on who it is that is being served the advert, or it could simply signal that having lost one such deal, it was desperate for the business.
But the likely answer is that 18 months ago Microsoft did not have the imagination that it has subsequently acquired through its aQuantive purchase.
Interestingly just a month ago, Microsoft cut a $500 million deal with Viacom, on the back of statements made by CEO Steve Ballmer, that Microsoft will get 25% of its revenue from advertising over the next few years. Google signed a deal with Viacom on the same day that it signed the original MySpace deal, and the fact that Microsoft has a decent amount of business with both Viacom and News Corp now, demonstrates just how much good difference an advanced ad serving platform like aQuantive’s Atlas has made, as well as the agency side of the business itself.
“Relevant and targeted digital advertising is important to our business and to the quality of the experience that we deliver to our users,” said Gordon McLeod, president of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. “Microsoft’s state-of-the-art advertising platform will enable us to dramatically improve our revenues from this key sector, and we look forward to working together.”
Financially minded users will put this site up against Yahoo perhaps more than any other, and perhaps Google was the wrong brand to be dealing with that serious minded group.
The addition of these sites brings an additional 20 million unique visitors a month through the Microsoft network, and the Wall Street Journal sites are expected to be in a position to deliver context based adverts by next month.