News Corp Launches Non-U.S. Financial Web Ad Network

News Corp is the latest to try its hand at the ad network game, with a vertical network for financial news and advice sites, pitched at non-U.S., premium advertisers.

Worthnet.Fox will form part of .Fox Networks, which concentrates on serving advertisers outside of the U.S. market, particularly in Europe, Asia, and throughout South America.

The network will comprise five News Corp properties, incorporating sites from the Wall Street Journal’s Digital Network such as MarketWatch.com and Barrons.com, alongside 25 third-party publisher sites, including financial portals, online newspaper properties, and standalone sites and blogs.

“There are currently 46,000 publicly traded companies, 20,000 of which come from emerging economies, and all of which want to be seen by senior decision makers and investors,” said Hernan Lopez, .Fox Networks president and COO of Fox International Channels.

“Advertisers of luxury brands and services find it difficult to reach this globally affluent audience, which is by definition dispersed and mobile. This network is specifically designed to do that,” he continued.

Ad formats offered will include standard IAB display units, sponsored links, and a range of video offerings driven by Fox’s recently acquired online video ad network Utarget.

Lopez said .Fox Networks had been in conversations with Fox Interactive Media to license their proprietary Hyper Targeting technology, recently rolled out across MySpace; however, that has not yet been implemented.FIM claims that the platform has driven higher CPM rates since it was launched for display ads in November 2007.

For the moment, targeting will be contextual, revolving around a “detailed knowledge of publisher sites and their audiences,” coupled with behavioral and predictive techniques, according to Lopez. Ads also can be targeted by geographic region and day-part.

.Fox Networks staff will be responsible for inventory sales, based in 17 offices across Europe, Asia and South America.

Business and financial news site Forbes announced a similar CPM-Based ad network earlier this year, encompassing around 400 blogs such as Talking Biz News and Calculated Risk, designed to reach senior business decision makers and wealthy investors.