FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5, 2008

The Ruxton Media Group today announced the expansion of the Ruxton Digital Media Network, a national online platform that will allow the entire alternative weekly industry to fully leverage its unique place in the North American media landscape.

The new platform is designed to facilitate rapid growth in an already robust digital market and allow Ruxton and a new set of partners to expand their business together.

Ruxton currently represents 39 alternative weeklies in print and digital formats.

It is currently on pace to deliver more than $2 million in digital sales to its partner publications in 2008.

Using careful measurement procedures and a wide range of sophisticated operational tools, Ruxton achieved 59 percent growth in digital sales in the past year. It boasted more than 9.7 million unique visitors to its 39 websites in March; those visitors provided more than 46 million page views.

“Our growing success in digital sales to date and increasing demand from advertisers for more inventory has spurred us to open up the network to all AAN papers,” said Village Voice Media president and chief operating officer Scott Tobias. “A large national digital advertising network will give everyone the opportunity to participate in the growth of national digital advertising sales.”

And cutting-edge digital services are only part of the Ruxton arsenal.

The agency also actively markets and sells integrated media packages across its entire network of publications, combining on-line sales with promotional tie-ins and events-based and print media platforms.

With offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Phoenix, Ruxton offers clients a dedicated team of nine full-time sales professionals versed in selling alternative weekly media on a daily basis.

Its backroom operation has a support staff of seven, who meticulously manage weekly tear sheets, invoices and online inventory, as well as monitoring online campaigns and continually reaching out to publishers to provide additional online stats and sales opportunities.

Ruxton and its partners also benefit directly from the agency’s association with VVM.

VVM’s local and classified digital revenue has exploded in the past eighteen months.

The company’s sixteen publications posted more than $6.7 million in digital sales in 2007. So far in 2008, VVM is enjoying 61 percent growth on a year-over-year basis.

That growth is made possible by a number of custom features. They include:

• An in-house system for booking and tracking online advertisements that is designed to replace a system reliant on Excel spreadsheets only. This system allows clients to see forecast inventory availability in real time and reserve impressions for pending buys. It also serves as a trafficking system through auto-notifications on missing creative or URLs, and campaign status, eliminating the need for direct manual contact.
• Reporting and sell-through through information tied into the inventory management system. This shows activity by site and by size for both local and national sales efforts.
• Ongoing development to tie all billing, inventory and ad server information into one portal that will serve as the main touch-point for all online activity.

All AAN publications that meet a set of standards and practices specifications are eligible for non-exclusive representation by the Ruxton Digital Media Network.

The agency’s standards and practices components include:

Ad Sizes
Ad Placement
Category tracking capability
Comscore subscription
User Research
Monthly Reporting
Ad Serving Specifications
Page and traffic measurement specifications
Linking

About the Ruxton Group:
The Ruxton Group was launched early in the 1980s by the owners of the Chicago Reader and was purchased by New Times Inc. (now known as Village Voice Media) in 1995.

In the years since Ruxton launched, it has grown into a multi-platform media group with publications and websites in 39 American cities.

Clients currently using Ruxton in print and digital formats include: Volkswagen, Sprint, Washington Mutual, HBO, Brown Forman, Bacardi, Microsoft, General Motors, Anheuser Busch Co., Verizon, Wachovia, Starbucks, American Express, Ford Motor Company, Heineken, Abbott Labs, the United States Government, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, T-Mobile, Jet Blue and numerous big box retailers.

Publishers interested in learning more about the Ruxton Digital Media Network should contact Joe Larkin at 602-229-8452 or joe.larkin (at) ruxton.com