• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 7, 2005

The Associated Press has tapped 24/7 Real Media to serve advertising on its network of news outlets, the companies are expected to announce today. The Associated Press previously used NetGravity, acquired by DoubleClick in July, for ad-serving.

The news-gathering sinew will use 24/7's "Open AdStream Central" service to serve third-party advertising within syndicated news stories on AP's "Custom News" network. The network encompasses more than 450 newspaper and broadcast Web sites, including the New York Post, 1010 WINS radio in New York, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Dallas Morning News, and The Detroit News, among others.

When users click on Associated Press headlines on a Custom News site, they are brought to a hosted page that is delivered by the AP. Under the arrangement with 24/7 Real Media, Open AdStream Central will serve the ads appearing within AP stories on these pages--which, according to 24/7, generates some 35 million impressions each month.

24/7 Real Media's ad service will allow the Associated Press to make use of a fully hosted service for hundreds of sites. 24/7 will take care of ad serving, system management, redundancy hosting, and upgrades, said a 24/7 spokeswomen.

"We're excited that Open AdStream will help AP serve and manage its ad campaigns on more than 450 hosted Web sites around the world," said Hayley Nelson, online business manager for the Associated Press. Nelson said that the AP did not undertake this partnership as a first step in a larger effort to build a direct-to-consumer brand.

The partnership with 24/7 comes on the heels of an announcement last week that the Associated Press partnered with Winstar Interactive Media, a division of Interep Interactive, to sell ad inventory within its syndicated news and multimedia feature stories in the United States. According to Winstar, all ads will be priced on a cost-per-thousand impression basis--and targeted regionally by market area, as well as by editorial verticals such as business, sports, and arts and entertainment.