Advertisers will make decision
whether to use AP or others

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- With advertisers demanding tighter deadlines and pagination technicians requesting ads in digital form, ways to deliver display ads electronically have mushroomed.

More than six companies have sprouted in the market in the last 18 months; all were present at NEXPO '94.

If you are at all interested in electronic ad delivery, your ears probably have been a-tingle since the Associated Press announced its entry into the market last spring. As might be expected, Tom Brettingen, the cooperative's deputy director of business development, said AP was a logical candidate for this business.

Not everyone agrees, but everyone -- especially companies already in this niche -- is watching what AP is doing. Tom Plunkett, Ad eXpress's vice president and national sales manager, summed up the common sentiment:

"We already have good relationships with our customers. We got people out of a lot of jams with the New York snowstorms this winter, and we've built up loyalty and trust.

"AP is still in beta testing and we're not worried about what they're doing. The burden is on them. Their entry just validates the process and makes us more confident that we have our niche."

As AP's Brettingen said, it's advertisers, not newspapers, the AP has to persuade to sign up. While the cooperative says a poll of 10 percent of its members found that two papers in three already were receiving ads electronically, executives also say newspapers were seeking new delivery paths.

"We came up with the idea for Adsend around a year ago," Brettingen said. "Newspapers found retailers were unhappy with stats and overnight delivery."

The opportunity for the AP to step in was perfect, Brettingen said.

"Retailers told [papers] to buy equipment for point-to-point delivery. Newspapers didn't want to support and manage multiple systems," he said. "AP standardizes the process, which is important for both individual newspapers and retailers."

The co-op also figures it's got enough communications equipment at its disposal to handle, with grace and aplomb, any seasonal electronic bursts that might occur.

The board reportedly loved the idea, which was approved in April. "We demonstrated that we could do it and the owners were eager after that," said Brettingen.

But isn't it odd for a news delivery co-op to start dispensing ads? "No," he responded, "we're not dirtying our hands, we're just delivering ads."

Under the current pricing model, advertisers bear the cost of delivery. AP members get equipment and ads at no cost; nonmembers will pay for equipment but no per-ad delivery costs.

Advertisers pay by the ad only, with no monthly minimum, no sign-up costs. They receive volume discounts based on predicted annual volume, which yields rates in the same range as overnight delivery. Sending one ad will cost $6 to $12.50; average cost will be between $8 and $9.

Here's the plan:

At the advertiser's end, the volume of ads to be sent will determine which communication line to use -- T1, ISDN or high-speed dial-up.

Adsend uses Adobe Acrobat (see sidebar) to save and compress either ad stacks or individual files. Acrobat extensions can allow advertisers to send the same ad to multiple newspapers, but strip in site-specific details such as times, locations or corrections.

Advertisers can set up an "A list" in advance to send ads automatically to newspapers they use regularly. The list can be updated easily.

The advertiser sends the ad once and, no matter when it is sent, AP promises delivery within eight hours. (Paying premium rates gets an ad delivered in two hours.)

At the AP end in New York, the ads come in to a central PC-based LAN, which captures and manages the ads in a manner similar to AP's handling of color photos.

AP delivers the ad to larger newspapers via satellite through a pipe separate from news and photos. When the ad arrives, it is handled by an AP file server, installed at AP expense.

Smaller newspapers will get a fax alert from the AP to pick up their ads off a bulletin board, through an AP modem and line.

Newspapers can output the ads using their own imagesetters -- or, for a price, AP will set up a member with nonproprietary hardware.

No one has signed up Adsend so far, but a live test the week before NEXPO between Macy's and the New Orleans Times-Picayune was successful. The next round of testing (which was scheduled to begin July 15) will involve a dozen advertisers and two dozen newspapers.

The AP expects to have 50 live sites by Sept. 19, 200 by Dec. 31 and 1000 by September 1995.

Advertiser interest will dictate which newspapers go first.

"It won't require any advertiser investment in anything new," Brettingen said. "They'll just need a Mac and a modem," which he said 97 percent of the polled advertisers already own.

The AP plans to expand to PCs soon, and claims compatibility with Camex and other systems that "you can make look like a Mac," which is important, Brettingen said, because "some advertisers have put a lot of time into proprietary systems that work."

The Associated Press isn't the only new kid on the electronic ad delivery block: