Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Gannett introduces 'on-line circular'

PointRoll, a subsidiary of Gannett, is offering what they call an on-line circular "for national retailers and other advertisers who want to target local markets with specific offers."

Gannett, Knight Ridder and the Tribune Company are now selling PaperBoy placements on their approximately 200 local news sites, which reach about 80 of Nielsen's designated market areas. USAToday.com and Yahoo! will also offer it, targeting the offers based on user registration data.

The format will appear live in the next two weeks. PointRoll is calling the ads online circulars because "from a retailer perspective it's something they can relate to," according to Andy Ellenthal, the company's EVP of sales. "If you look at the ways circulars are bought and leveraged, it's to drive foot traffic that particular week. It's less of a brand exercise."

A Gannett spokesperson is quoted as being surprised at the size of retailer budgets for circulars ($200-500mil). If that surprises them, I wonder what they'd say about the amounts the retailers collect from their vendors for those circulars?

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