Cox Digital Solutions Expands Political Footprint With The Weather Channel

NEW YORK and ATLANTA, March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Expanding its political footprint, Cox Digital Solutions, a CoxReps company, has partnered with #1 weather property (comScore), The Weather Channel (TWCC), to become the exclusive seller of political advertising across The Weather Channel's web property, www.weather.com. With Cox Digital Solutions' reach among 150+ MM monthly unique users (comScore) onto local media and lifestyle vertical sites and the ability to layer on proprietary congressional targeting, the partnership with The Weather Channel further enables political advertisers to reach their precise voting audience in the markets that are most critical to swaying votes.

The Weather Channel is the top weather property and the fourth largest news and information property online. Because weather.com's 60 million monthly Web consumers must enter zip code information to access accurate local weather forecast, news and information for their area, the site is inherently conducive to delivering highly-targeted local political campaign messages while still achieving significant scale.

This announcement comes on the heels of a partnership announcement in January making Cox Digital Solutions the exclusive seller of political advertising on Yahoo!. Together, Cox Digital Solutions, Yahoo!, and The Weather Channel reach 100% of the US online voting age population (comScore). "Cox Digital Solutions has established publisher partnerships among local and lifestyle sites and a long history of political advertising," commented Steve Shaw, President of Cox Digital Solutions. "What Yahoo! brings to the ballot in reach and scale, The Weather Channel brings in breadth and depth among local audiences. All three of our companies will bring advertisers the solutions that they need to drive votes this election."

"We are thrilled with the potential of this opportunity and what it means for our business and visibility in the political arena," commented Jim Monahan, President of CoxReps. "The Cox Digital Solutions digital footprint combined with CoxReps' share in the TV market, positions us as the most influential multi-platform partner for political advertisers and agencies in 2012."

With these partnerships in place, political advertisers have scalable options to reach their target audiences. "Local reach is The Weather Channel's sweet spot," said Beth Lawrence, Executive Vice President, Ad Sales and Media Solutions for The Weather Channel. "Political advertising is Cox Digital Solutions' area of expertise. This partnership makes sense in so many ways but most importantly, in seamlessly reaching critical political audiences for our clients."

As yet another move in the political space, these partnerships show Cox Digital Solutions' commitment to connecting political advertisers with their voters using massive scale, precise targeting, and premium content among 100% of the voting age population.

About The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel companies (TWCC) are made up of The Weather Channel® television network, The Weather Channel digital properties, and WSI. The Weather Channel is based in Atlanta and is seen in more than 100 million U.S. households. TWCC also operates Weatherscan®, a 24-hour all-local weather network; The Weather Channel Radio Network; and The Weather Channel HD. The most popular source of weather news and information, TWCC properties reach 60 million monthly Web consumers (weather.com and Desktop) and 32 million monthly mobile users (mobile Web and applications) and offers the second most popular mobile app on all smartphones. WSI, headquartered in Andover, MA, primarily provides business-to-business weather services, particularly for the media, aviation, marine and energy sectors. TWCC is owned by a consortium made up of NBC Universal and the private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. For more information, visit www.weather.com/press.

About Cox Digital Solutions
Cox Digital Solutions provides compelling online advertising solutions that connect advertisers with engaged users and publishers with quality brands. As the only company to offer the largest integrated source of premium national reach and local engagement including specialty vertical content and local media sites, Cox Digital Solutions delivers results for advertisers, agencies, and publishers. Cox Digital Solutions, a division of Cox Reps, part of Atlanta-based Cox Media Group, is headquartered in New York, New York. Learn more at www.coxdigitalsolutions.com.

SOURCE Cox Digital Solutions