Cox Digital Solutions Partners with Gannett to Provide Political Advertising

NEW YORK, July 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Cox Digital Solutions is entering an agreement with Gannett to become the media company's exclusive national seller of digital political and advocacy advertising for Gannett U.S. Community Publishing and Gannett Broadcasting web sites in advance of the upcoming elections. Gannett joins Yahoo! and The Weather Channel as Cox Digital Solutions' exclusive political and advocacy advertising partners for the 2012 political season. 

The relationship makes Cox Digital Solutions, reaching 155 million unique users and nearly 70 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience (May 2012 comScore) with their local and national media solutions each month, a unique source of political advertising. Together, Gannett's U.S. Community Publishing and Gannett Broadcasting reach 24.5 million unique visitors and 11% of the total Internet audience (May 2012 comScore) each month.

"This partnership extends Gannett's sales force while providing political advertisers with the added opportunity to easily reach Gannett's vast hyper-local audiences," said Robert Dickey, president of U.S. Community Publishing, and Dave Lougee, president of Gannett Broadcasting, in a joint statement. "Political advertisers want to get their messages out to as many people as possible and with this partnership, we can help provide the scale and reach they seek."

Through Cox Digital Solutions' Washington, D.C., office, Gannett will be able to offer advertisers the ability to target online advertising based on congressional district. This targeting reaches across Cox Digital Solutions' network of vertical content and local media sites, combining IP mapping with proprietary data, to find users in an advertisers' exact target congressional district.

As a company with a long political advertising history, these strategic moves signal Cox Digital Solutions, a division of CoxReps, continued focus on bridging the divide between traditional and online media, blending political expertise with scale, reach, and technology. "Political is and always has been an important aspect of our business and an area in which we excel," said CoxReps President Jim Monahan.

"The partnership with Gannett and our continued focus on technology are big wins not only for us, but also for the publishers and advertisers that we serve. This step shows our continued commitment to supporting political advertisers and agencies that need digital ad solutions that deliver," added Steve Shaw, president of Cox Digital Solutions.

Political advertisers will now have several scalable and customizable options to reach their target audiences. By partnering with Cox Digital Solutions, advertisers can deliver their political message among trusted local media and premium contextually relevant sites in key target markets throughout the U.S. and also across Yahoo! and The Weather Channel properties.

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.

About Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is an international media and marketing solutions company that informs and engages more than 100 million people every month through its powerful network of broadcast, digital, mobile and publishing properties. Our portfolio of trusted brands offers marketers unmatched local-to-national reach and customizable, innovative marketing solutions across any platform. Gannett is committed to connecting people -- and the companies who want to reach them -- with their interests and communities. For more information, visit www.gannett.com.

SOURCE Cox Digital Solutions