Mediaport Closes Shop
- by John Gaffney , September 12, 2002
Turns out that Mediaport was in discussions with a company called IdeaAlliance to merge two standards for XML data exchange. The two companies had agreed to launch them with the Newspaper Association of American and The Magazine Publishers Association. The Mediaport media buying standards would have been combined with IdeaAlliance’s publishing and productions standards. That effort has been temporarily derailed.
“We’re going to put together a summit of all the people involved toward the end of October,” says IdeaAlliance president David Steinhardt. “We’re going to get all the players in one room and discuss next steps in the wake of Mediaport’s troubles.”
Steinhardt is hoping that Mediaport resurfaces in some form. Rumors have placed it in a new alliance with Donovan Data Systems. Mediaport CEO Mike Lotito and Marisa Kabasinskas, who served as vice president of business strategy, did not return requests for comment.
Mediaport, owned by a conglomerate of Interpublic, WPP and Omnicom, closed earlier this week. According to several published reports the project was halted as its three parents look for ways to cut losses and increase earnings in a tough ad climate.
The use of XML internet data exchange technology has been touted as a way to make media buying more consistent and efficient. According to Steinhardt, much more progress has been made on using the technology on the print production side than on the media buying and selling side. IdeaAlliance has a product called Space XML that is currently in use on the production side of several magazines.
Mediaport was formed last September. Lotito told MDN at that time that it would take 18 months to build the product, and two years before it could be used.
“We'll build a database that defines a media buy across all media types," he said. "It's not an exclusive closed system and it's not being put together to get lower rates, but to enable the current process of buying media."
