DallasNews.com Honored with NAA’S Digital Edge Award for Best Advertising Program
Dallas,TX — DallasNews.com, the web site affiliated with The Dallas Morning News was presented with the Digital Edge Award for Best Advertising Program, Circulation more than 250,000, from the Newspaper Association of America’s New Media Federation yesterday. The “Edgies” were presented during Connections(r)2004, NAA’s annual interactive-media conference recognizing the newspaper industry’s outstanding online editorial projects and sales programs.
DallasNews.com’s wining entry highlighted a local automotive dealer’s Precision Advertising Campaign that achieved dramatic results in consumer response both online and offline by increasing awareness of the dealer and its inventory among consumers who were local, ready to buy, and willing to act now. Precision Advertising Solutions allows advertisers to efficiently deliver their messages to select audience profiles based on registration and behavioral data.
In addition to providing contextual advertising within the automotive section of DallasNews.com, targeted banners were delivered to customers who had visited the automotive section within the past 30 days. The response rate among the target audience was a stunning 7.7% as compared to the national average of .33%. In addition to increasing the advertiser’s reach and the campaign’s effectiveness, targeted ads doubled the number of credit applications the dealership received, and increased the number of online searches by 17%. The dealership reported that the DallasNews.com campaign generated 44% of the total calls into the dealership at a time when eight promotions were running in other media.
“Belo Interactive is honored to receive one of interactive media’s highest awards,” said Eric Christensen, vice president and general manager of Belo Interactive. “We continue to be at the forefront of behavioral targeting capabilities, and we take immense pride in knowing that our colleagues selected us for this award.”
The Digital Edge Awards, founded in 1996, honor online publishers from newspapers of all sizes that expand the reach and enhance the story-telling and advertising capabilities of the traditional-media news service. This year’s winners were selected from 190 entries in eight categories – Best Overall News Site, Most Innovative Use of Digital Media: Features/Enterprise, Best Entertainment Site, Most Innovative Visitor Participation, Best Automotive Site, Best Employment Site, Best Real Estate Site and Best Advertising Program.
“This year’s award winners again show the vitality and continued commitment to innovation at online newspapers in markets large and small,” said Lisa DeSisto, incoming president of NAA’s New Media Federation and vice president/general manager of New York Times Digital’s Boston.com.
Thirty digital-media directors, editors and producers, along with advertising experts and industry analysts, served as judges, each assigned to a category based on their professional expertise.
For More Information, Contact:
Linda Fisk
214-977-4017
About Belo Interactive
Belo Interactive is part of Belo Corp., one of the nation’s largest media companies with a diversified group of market-leading television, newspaper, cable and interactive media assets. A Fortune 1000 company with approximately 7,800 employees and $1.4 billion in annual revenues, Belo operates news and information franchises in some of America’s most dynamic markets and regions, including Texas, the Northwest, the Southwest, Rhode Island and the Mid-Atlantic region. Belo owns 19 television stations (six in the top 15 markets) reaching 13.8 percent of U.S. television households; owns or operates 10 cable news channels; and manages one television station through a local marketing agreement. Belo’s daily newspapers include The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal, The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA) and the Denton Record-Chronicle(Denton, TX). Belo Interactive’s new media businesses include more than 30 Web sites, several interactive alliances and a broad range of Internet-based products.
Additional information, including earnings releases, is available online at www.belo.com. For more information, contact Linda Fisk, Vice President/Audience Development and Management, at 214-977-4017.
About NAA
NAA is a nonprofit organization representing the $55 billion newspaper industry and more than 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. Most NAA members are daily newspapers, accounting for 87 percent of the U.S. daily circulation. Headquartered in Tysons Corner (Vienna, Va.), the Association focuses on six key strategic priorities that affect the newspaper industry collectively: marketing, public policy, diversity, industry development, newspaper operations and readership. Information about NAA and the industry also may be found at www.naa.org.