Aug 31, 2009 – Newsday, a division of Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC), announced today that it has signed an agreement with locally-focused ad tech startup PaperG Inc. to deploy PaperG's new ad unit Flyerboard across its website's neighborhood sections. The deal comes on the heels of Hearst Newspapers' decision to incorporate Flyerboard across its network of web properties. Some 60 sites nationally now use PaperG's dynamic ad unit to increase local ad revenue.
Flyerboard is a new online advertising format specifically geared to work for local businesses. Expanding on the concept of a community bulletin board, the Flyerboard is a virtual bulletin board on which businesses can post flyers to advertise their services and events. It gives local businesses an intuitive, inexpensive vehicle to attract customers, and provides for many their first foray into online advertising.
Newsday will offer different Flyerboards for each region of Long Island, so that any businesses will be able to reach nearby local residents. Each Flyer ad will come with built-in community features like maps, email sharing, and social networking to make the ad useful and easy to pass along to friends.
"We were looking for a solution that would provide our local businesses the ability to easily and effectively promote and target their messages online," explained Andrea Rothchild, Newsday's Vice President of Classified Advertising. "Flyerboard is perfect for a diverse, community-driven region like Long Island."
Andree Sanquini, Director of Online Retail Advertising agreed: "We're confident that Long Island's local merchants will embrace Flyerboard as a new and cost-effective way to build their businesses. I like this solution because it's easy-to-use and offers our local businesses an effective and affordable option."
In the past year, prominent local and hyperlocal websites across the country have successfully deployed Flyerboard to attract more local advertisers. More than 60 sites now use the unit, including Hearst Newspapers' Chron.com and SFGate.com, mtvU's College Media Network, Boston.com, and others.
PaperG CEO Victor Wong said, "We're delighted to have Newsday on board and expect Flyerboard to broaden Newsday.com's local advertising base."
PaperG was founded in April 2007 when Yale University students teamed with Harvard University students to reinvent the relationship between local online publishers and local businesses. CEO Victor Wong, a former economics major from Yale, was joined by Chief Operating Officer Roger Lee, an applied mathematics major from Harvard and former publisher of the Harvard Crimson, Chief Technology Officer Victor Cheng, a computer science major from Yale, Chief Financial Officer Ka Mo Lau, a former economics major from Yale, and VP Business Development Tyler Bosmeny, an applied mathematics major from Harvard.
PaperG has attracted to its board of advisors a range of esteemed publishing, technology and advertising industry veterans. Among them: Stephen Taylor, publisher of the Boston Globe's Boston.com during its first five years of existence, Mark Potts, co-founder of WashingtonPost.com, Liddy Manson, former COO of Freewebs and VP of Washington Post Interactive, Scott Symonds, executive media director of AKQA, a leading interactive marketing company, and Peter Himler, public relations executive and founding principal of Flatiron Communications.
PaperG Inc. operates from the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute in New Haven, CT.
Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) is one of the nation's leading media and entertainment companies. Its cable television operations serve more than 3 million households in the New York metropolitan area. The company's advanced telecommunications offerings include its iO TV® digital television, Optimum Online high-speed Internet, Optimum Voice® digital voice-over-cable, and its Optimum Lightpath integrated business communications services. Cablevision operates several successful programming businesses, including AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel and WE tv, through Rainbow Media Holdings LLC, and serves the New York area as publisher of Newsday and other niche publications through Newsday Media Group. In addition to these businesses, Cablevision owns Madison Square Garden and its sports teams, the New York Knicks, Rangers and Liberty. The company also operates New York's famed Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre, and the Chicago Theatre, and owns and operates Clearview Cinemas.
Newsday is one of the nation's largest daily newspapers, serving Long Island through its print editions and Newsday.com. Newsday has won 19 Pulitzer Prizes and other esteemed journalism awards. Newsday is read by seven out of ten Long Island adults each week. Newsday Media Group includes Newsday, its popular websites, Newsday.com, Explore LI.com; amNewYork, the nation's most widely circulated free daily serving New York City; and Star Community Publishing, the Northeast's largest group of weekly shopper publications. Newsday is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation.
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