• by Ross Fadner , September 19, 2004

This morning, Revenue Science unveiled its newest behavioral targeting services client, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), a subsidiary of the Washington Post Company. WPNI now joins a large pool of interactive news services that use behavioral targeting technology to segment their audiences by demonstrated on-site behavior. Advertisers then purchase these audience segments as premium ad packages.

WPNI will use Revenue Science's proprietary Audience Search technology, which allows publishers to search for the specific audience requirements requested by their advertisers. Audience Search enables this type of searching by allowing publishers to adjust reach and relevancy levels to advertisers' specifications in real-time. In turn, publishers can charge higher premiums for run-of-site and house inventory.

Revenue Science President and CEO Bill Gossman noted that Audience Search facilitates "effective reach" by enabling publishers to adjust the broadness of their audience segments in real-time.

"Audience Search behavioral targeting will allow our advertisers to reach their target audience in a highly measurable way based on how our users actually experience the site," said Caroline Little, CEO and publisher, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive. "This new approach to advertising takes full advantage of the fact that the Web is an addressable medium, which is especially relevant for reaching consumers effectively."

News content providers tend to have broader audiences, making them particularly good customers for behavioral targeting firms. The Wall Street Journal Online, MarketWatch Reuters.com, and Financial Times.com constitute Revenue Science's other online news publisher customers. Rival behavioral targeting firm Tacoda Systems delivers audience segments for LA Times.com, Dallas News.com, the Chicago Tribune Online, SFGate.com, and The Associated Press.