About.com, DoubleClick In It for the Long Haul

Despite Internet businesses’ reputations for short-term deal making, content portal About, Inc., cemented a 10-year agreement with ad technology and network company DoubleClick.

Under terms of the deal, DoubleClick’s DART system will continue to serve ads on About.com until August, 2010. Financial details of the arrangement weren’t disclosed.

“DART is a great system for supporting our sales force’s service to our growing customer base,” said About chairman and chief executive officer Scott Kurnit.

“It’s also a pleasure to see two of New York’s leading Internet companies strengthen their ties for the success of advertising on the Net and for New York as a leading center of Internet operations,” Kurnit said.

The About network encompasses more than 700 sites, which are organized into 36 subject-matter channels. More than 50 million unique users visit the network monthly, making the site one of the Web’s most trafficked properties — in July, online audience measurement firm Media Metrix ranked About.com the Web’s seventh most-visited site.

About.com has been an exclusive client of DoubleClick since early 1999.

“With today’s announcement, About has demonstrated its long-term confidence in online advertising and our business,” said DoubleClick CEO Kevin Ryan.

“This is a mutually beneficial agreement and we are delighted that they want to partner with us for the next 10 years,” he added.

As the leading ad network technology, DART currently serves approximately two billion ads a day, for more than 17,000 sites.