• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 18, 2008

Feeding advertisers' appetites for more locally targeted ads, CBS Television Stations has launched the CBS Local Ad Network across a swath of local blogging and social media sites.

CBS-owned stations are now syndicating local news "widgets" to a network of blogs and local sites within the communities they serve. The widgets feature local headlines and images with links to video and text stories on CBS station sites.

In turn, the stations are now selling marketers on the promise of more broadly and efficiently reaching local audiences, while maintaining the creditability and quality of the CBS brand and content.

The goal, said Jonathan Leess, president and general manager of CBS Television Stations Digital Media Group, is for "our advertising partners to efficiently extend their reach to valued local audiences while associating themselves with our CBS brands and content."

The widgets themselves include companion banner ads, courtesy of CBS station's sales teams. Another sell is the fact that the CBS stations are delivering real-time news feeds to the widgets, allowing the content on local partner sites to be updated regularly 24 hours a day.

The newly formed ad network has already has received support of some top advertisers, including AT&T, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and North Texas Honda Dealers.

In exchange for carrying the widgets, owners of local sites are receiving portions of ad revenue generated by ad sales.

To form the core of the CBS Local Ad Network, CBS is relying on SyndiGO--a new division of ad network provider Seevast Corp.--for the recruitment and management of local blogs and social media sites nationwide.

The network has already been launched in Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Francisco, Denver and Chicago.

The rollout is expected to continue over the next several weeks and also includes the CBS-owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.