Real Media Gets Vertical

The Real Media advertising network, which, until now, has pursued a regional strategy, is announcing a new vertical network structure.

Many of Real Media’s biggest US clients are newspaper sites The Los Angeles Times, Boston.com, The Chicago Sun-Times and Washingtonpost.com so the company has focused on selling advertisers regionally-targeted opportunities.

Now the company is creating eleven verticals sports, travel, personal finance, small business, news and information, multi-cultural, elite professionals, home and living, big events and syndication to offer advertisers more options.

“We decided to expand our portfolio primarily as a result of advertiser demand,” says Real Media chairman Dave Morgan. “Many were buying our local network in vertical segments and they frequently requested vertical sites that could match specific types of content or lifestyles.”

The company bills the move as a response to the success of its strategy in Europe, but acknowledges that the vertical-oriented networks sold by leaders like DoubleClick are having an impact on advertisers.

“There’s no question that the market is being shaped by how the players are acting in it,” says Morgan.

As part of the strategy, the company is trying to sign up new sites to join these vertical networks, and it’s been restructuring its sales force to put together packages of both regional and vertical opportunities.