Apr
23
By Clarence William Cromwell
AnnArbor.com will generate revenue through targeted advertising, according to a key member of the management team.
The web site, created to replace the 174-year-old Ann Arbor News when it ceases to publish in July, will gather information about readers and then use data mining techniques to target ads to those readers who will most likely be interested, said Laurel Champion, executive vice president of AnnArbor.com LLC.
Champion said the innovation would give the company “the ability to be much more targeted with our advertisers and their messages.”
The site itself states: “We believe that done right, AnnArbor.com will offer better solutions for advertisers. Deep community engagement and a stronger neighborhood focus will allow for smarter targeting, better ability to connect with customers and ultimately a better return on investment.”
Champion said she would not be able to answer questions about exactly how the data would be gathered. And Tony Dearing, content director for the site was not available for comment.
However, the site has a privacy policy which discusses the use of client information
The 23-paragraph document says, in part:
” . . .We may also provide your information to our advertisers, so that they can serve ads to you that meet your needs or match your interests. . . .
“While your personally identifying information is protected as outlined above, we reserve the right to use, transfer, sell, and share aggregated, anonymous data about our users as a group for any business purpose, such as analyzing usage trends and seeking compatible advertisers and partners. . . .
“We may also use advertising service vendors to help present advertisements on the Website. These vendors may use cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies to serve you advertisements tailored to interests you have shown by browsing on this and other sites you have visited, to determine whether you have seen a particular advertisement before and to avoid sending you duplicate advertisements. In doing so, these vendors may collect non-personal data such as your browser type, your operating system, Web pages visited, time of visits, content viewed, ads viewed, and other clickstream data. The use of cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies by these advertising service vendors is subject to their own privacy policies, not ours, and Service Provider disclaims all liability in connection therewith.”
In attracting readers and delivering news, the company says its site will go technologically further than many news sites by incorporating social networking aspects. And it will allow readers to have news delivered directly to their email inboxes.
AnnArbor.com has been developed with the help of Huge, inc, a company that previously developed MTV’s web site.
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