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Village Voice Media Launches Local Ad Network
Voice Local Network Leverages Local Sales Forces to Help Independent Online Publishers Tap Into Location-Based Targeting
| Source: Village Voice Media
PHOENIX, AZ--(Marketwire - June 15, 2009) - Village Voice Media, publisher
of 15 alternative weekly papers in major metro areas throughout the U.S.,
today launched the Voice Local
Network, an online ad network that allows select publishers to monetize
their content using Village Voice Media's locally based sales forces. In
doing so, Voice Local Network serves as a powerful geographic targeting
tool for sites that fit into similar content and demographic categories as
the readers of Village Voice Media's properties.
Launch partners for the Voice Local Network include LikeMe.Net, Wolfgang's Vault, Curbed.com, Eater.com, Racked.com and Checkoutmyink.com. The Voice Local
Network is designed for online publishers that fall under the same content
verticals as Village Voice Media's publications, including nightlife, food,
entertainment and lifestyle sites that reach similar readers to Village
Voice Media's 18- to 34-year-old core demographic.
Over many decades, Village Voice Media has built a several-hundred-person
strong sales force distributed throughout all of its 15 locations,
including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Houston, Denver,
Seattle and Miami. Each market supports an experienced sales team that has
developed relationships with hundreds of small businesses looking to target
local customers. Village Voice Media also has plans to expand its local
sales force into other top 20 markets.
"As other media companies struggle in the digital age, we've been able to
adapt, adjust and remain successful -- and a big part of that success is
our full commitment to local content and local ads," said Scott Tobias,
president & COO, Village Voice Media. "We've been working the streets,
merchant to merchant, for years developing personal relationships in all of
our cities. Through these connections, we've developed a very high local
CPM Web business, and it's a natural evolution to help other publishers tap
into our network of advertisers. We're looking for high quality content
publishers that reach similar audiences and want to partner with a growing
national media company to help better monetize their properties. With Voice
Local Network, we're aiming to help both national and local Web sites
looking for hyperlocal sales representation."
"At LikeMe.Net, we designed our application to display highly relevant
content and advertising to our users, and partnering with Village Voice
Media and the Voice Local Network parallels our targeting efforts," said
Jeff Giarraputo, CEO, LikeMe.Net. "We view the Voice Local Network as an
important strategic element to our long-term revenue growth and business
success."
"We're excited to be working with Village Voice Media on this," said Joshua
Albertson, general manager, Curbed.com. "Through our network of city-based
sites (Curbed, Eater, and Racked), we reach a targeted, engaged audience.
It's our hope that Voice's excellent sales team can help us connect that
audience to a host of new, relevant advertisers."
To learn more about the Voice Local Network, visit
www.voicelocalnetwork.com
About Village Voice Media
Village Voice Media is a collection of 15 weekly newspapers and daily Web
sites, including New York's Village Voice, the LA Weekly, Denver's Westword
and the Phoenix New Times. Online, in print, and on mobile devices, Village
Voice Media's properties combine music, food and events coverage with
gritty,
hard-hitting journalism to create the most powerful city guides in each
market. While the focus of the brand is local, its free classifieds site,
backpage.com, partnership with social recommendation engine LikeMe.Net and
national sales force, Voice Media Group, allows it to extend its reach to a
national level.