• by Erik Sass , November 2, 2006

In another advance for place-based media, the Wall Street Journal Office Network--an ad-supported video-news service with locations in major business centers--announced it is expanding to five new office buildings owned by real-estate developer Golub & Company in Chicago.

First launched in June 2006 in buildings in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles, the network delivers market indexes, weather and scrolling news headlines via large flat-screen TVs to the public areas of office buildings. The network was created by Office Media Networks.

With the new additions, the WSJ Office Network is broadening its base in a small but lucrative market. Although their venues are slightly different, the WSJ Office Network occupies a niche akin to Captivate Networks, which delivers similar business news via video screens installed in elevators in major office buildings. With an almost identical audience profile, the two networks compete for the same advertisers and use similar metrics--principally, building occupancy and pedestrian traffic in public places.

According to Captivate CEO Mike DiFranza, his company also competes with the paper and online editions of The Wall Street Journal. In February, he boasted that Captivate had surpassed the Journal's audience reach, which had long been the digital media network's goal. "Captivate is all about reaching business people during a time of day when most traditional media has a hard time reaching them," DiFranza says.