DTI’s AdShare is an award-winning tool for sharing spec ads among groups of newspapers.

DTI’s AdShare program enables all 16 Cox Newspapers to access all of the spec ads produced in the entire group as if they were local to each one. This leverages the creative talent at every individual site for the benefit of all. AdShare is helping increase overall ad sales throughout the group. AdShare was developed in conjunction with CoxNet’s John Reetz and Perry Patrick with important contributions from every Cox Newspaper. It was built upon DTI’s AdSpeed display advertising system and its distributed database technology, which makes multiple databases appear as one big database to individual users.

AdShare was so effective from a business perspective, that in 1999 Cox Newspapers won the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) TechNews Best Practices Award in the Business category for its use of DTI’s AdShare over CoxNet. Since then AdShare has only improved.

There are several secrets to AdShare’s success and its low cost to implement. One is that all Cox Newspapers had already standardized on DTI’s AdSpeed system. Second, the CoxNet staff got buy-in from each newspaper and helped them be successful in using the system. Third, it is very simple for ad artists to use.

For example, an ad is built by a staff artist. Without leaving the production system, he designates the ad to be shared and with a few clicks, can assign it to specific categories, and subcategories with keywords to make it easy to search for and locate. To use a shared ad, an artist or production staffer, working in AdSpeed at another location, simply needs to pull down his “locations” menu, choose another newspaper, and then browse the ads in a given category at the other newspaper. If an ad that meets the need is found, then the operator can simply “open” the ad onto his screen. This will automatically make a copy of the remote ad, and move it to the local database, along with all the linked graphics, logos, photos, etc. The operator can modify the ad to fit the local need and save the changes to the local database. The original ad on the remote system is left untouched.

This approach eliminates the need to know how to log on to other locations, or how to navigate through the remote site. It eliminates having to know how to download or transfer files. It eliminates the need to locate associated photos and graphics and bring them along. It eliminates the need to load and re-link the ad elements once they have been transferred. In the AdShare system, the operator never leaves their familiar AdSpeed environment. They simply use the AdSpeed Search remotely, just as they would locally, and then open the file. Since all the extra work is eliminated, the system is simple and convenient, and therefore it is utilized.

The ability to share spec ads so easily is just one more of the benefits for newspaper groups to standardize on a powerful, integrated system, for all of their individual newspapers. DTI’s Virtual Newsroom enables sharing of editorial pages and layouts in a similar way to AdShare. DTI’s unified database technology is the most efficient way to manage information, is the key to a cost-effective approach to on-line publishing and is a stable and timeless foundation upon which to integrate future technology.