Tribune Company Press Release

With Q, quadrantONE Enables the First Fully Branded, Private Audience Platform and Exchange for Premium Local Media

Tribune, Gannett, Hearst, and The New York Times Company All Committing Significant Inventory to the RTB Space and Sold Exclusively through quadrantONE

Q-Select Enables First Access for Buyers Seeking Local Audiences in Branded, Well-Lit Environments while Q-Exchange Buyers Enjoy Automated Access to Premium, Structured Local Inventory via RTB

quadrantONE, a joint venture of four major media companies (Tribune Company, Gannett Co., Inc., Hearst Corporation and The New York Times Company) today announced the public debut of Q, a new source for premium local audiences. With Q, quadrantONE repositions itself as the company that provides media buyers with the source of data that the marketplace is demanding – the true audience behind the buy – with no third party between buyer and seller, and therefore more dollars from every campaign actually going to inventory and not to intermediaries and other third parties.

“quadrantONE’s reach across premium local news sites, and our array of digital solutions, enable us to provide deeper insights and present actionable recommendations to clients”
.“Local display advertising has been held back by limited audience insight,” said Peter Krasilovsky, VP, Marketplaces and Leader, Conferences, BIA/Kelsey. “The new arrangement by quadrantONE to provide high quality local audience insight for its newspaper participants should help jumpstart local display efforts.”

Buyers of all Q products see more of their campaign dollars go directly into their campaign. Unlike other RTB and exchange products, Q-Exchange sells inventory from only premium sites with full transparency built in. With no need to pay for third party aggregator or selling service fees or verification, and as an audience-buying product, Q-Select provides multiple other benefits not commonly offered by other exchanges:

Q – Optimizer: Provides real-time optimization recommendations based on campaign insights and automatically executes optimizations aligned with campaign goals in mind;

Q – Insights: Delivers quantitative, as well as qualitative, insights about individual campaigns, the back-end learning that provides a value-add to buyers;

Q – Effects: Moves beyond the click to measure brand/message recall, engagement, and post impression actions.

“Our four owners are coming together to address the needs of digital marketers, which increasingly means real time bidding on specific audiences,” said Lincoln Millstein, Senior Vice President for Digital Media, Hearst Newspapers, and a quadrantONE board member.

“Digital marketers are seeking premium local audiences, and we are providing streamlined access by committing inventory in the guaranteed, automated bidding space,” said Josh Resnik, Vice President and General Manager, Gannett Digital Media.

“quadrantONE’s reach across premium local news sites, and our array of digital solutions, enable us to provide deeper insights and present actionable recommendations to clients,” said Don Meek, Executive Vice President, Tribune Company and quadrantONE board member. “We have assembled some of the most trusted brands in the media industry to meet the challenges of today’s dynamic marketplace, and we look forward to Q becoming an indispensable tool for agencies, their trading desk practices and many other buyers as digital marketing continues to grow and evolve.”

“Q provides brands with an effective and efficient tool for reaching a premium, local audience online, in real-time,” said Lisa DeSisto, chief advertising officer for New York Times Company-owned Boston Globe and general manager of Boston.com. “We are very excited to participate in the creation of this new platform along with other top trusted media outlets with powerful brands and highly desirable audiences.”

“Through the insights gained by Q, quadrantONE exclusively gains a deeper understanding of the premium, local audience,” said Michael Barrett, the CEO of Admeld, whose private exchange technology is powering Q-Exchange. “Since quadrantONE already has a strong track record of effectively aggregating and monetizing that audience, it will capture new revenue streams while providing substantial value and convenience to buyers. We’re very pleased to collaborate with quadrantONE on Q.”

“I am not at all surprised by the pent-up demand for what Q provides. Marketers and their agencies have consistently and publicly expressed their challenge in making it simple to reach scalable audiences in clean, well-lit environments online, and this is our answer to that challenge” said Mario Diez, CEO of quadrantONE. “The premium local publishing industry is making a commitment to provide marketers with the means to reach national audiences directly through an array of buying strategies and platforms that continue to emerge. Q is a source of this premium, local audience.”

This launch was first reported by Advertising Age: http://adage.com/article/digital/york-times-hearst-tribune-gannett-form-private-online-ad-exchange/149122/

About quadrantONE
quadrantONE is a joint venture of four major media companies that focuses on premium advertisers seeking high-quality audiences and national reach. Backed by Tribune Company, Gannett Co., Inc., Hearst Corporation and The New York Times Company, quadrantONE offers exclusive ad inventory on premium news and information sites across the nation’s top local markets. For the first time, advertisers can consistently deliver their brand and message on a country-wide scale in context with local relevancy in environments they know and that consumers trust.