Voice Local Network Leverages Local Sales Forces to Help Independent Online Publishers Tap Into Location-Based Targeting
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PHOENIX
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 websites 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 websites, 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.
