Beth Cox

Microsoft reportedly is expanding its advertising sales force as part of a plan to make its MSN.com Web site one of the top portals on the Internet. Marty Taucher, director of MSN marketing communications, told reporters that the company’s business model calls for the Web site to generate 60 to 70 percent of its revenues […]

New York City-based HotSocket Inc., a Web-based direct response marketing company, said that Alan Kipust of Proteam.com (formerly Genesis Direct) has joined its board of advisors. Kipust is the vice president of operations at the catalog retailer. “Alan is a fantastic addition to the HotSocket board,” said Dev Bhatia, president of HotSocket. “He brings with […]

Community site GeoCities this week launched “Pages That Pay,” an e-commerce affiliate program for its more than 3.5 million members. Pages That Pay gives GeoCities’ “Homesteaders” the ability to make money through their own personal Web pages by selling thousands of products and services from 16 brand-name merchants. The program, powered by Be Free Inc.’s […]

New York City-based 24/7 Media Inc. said that it has added 23 new sites, including HomeSeekers.com, to 10 of its 21 content channels in The 24/7 Network. “This surge of new name-brand sites is the result of momentum we built last year,” said Mark Burchill, senior vice president, worldwide business development at 24/7 Media. “Many […]

Santa Clara, CA-based Softlink Inc. signed with Anaheim, CA-based Caudill & Associates Inc. to launch a national, direct response advertising campaign for the company’s E-Mail VoiceLink software. Softlink’s President, William Yuan, said the campaign will allow television viewers nationwide to experience a full demonstration of E-mail Voicelink and place product orders directly through a toll-free […]

ViewSonic Corp. teamed with Yahoo! to launch launches the second phase of its global branding initiative, “ViewSonic on Top, PC Sold Separately.” Advertisements have been created pairing the companies as leading providers in their respective industries to educate consumers on the importance of having a good-quality, high-performance monitor. Spending on the campaign was not disclosed. […]

Yahoo Japan Corp., a joint venture between Yahoo! Inc. of the U.S. and Japan’s Softbank Corp., said it expects pretax profit of 270 million yen ($2.23 million), up from 131.7 million yen the year before, on increased ad sales. That’s 3.8 percent above the 260 million yen forecast by Toyo Keizai Inc. Sales will be […]

Berkeley, CA-based rewards marketer Cybergold Inc. launched its new micropayment “Earn & Spend Community,” calling it “the first and only place on the Web where consumers can earn cash online (from advertisers) and use it to purchase digital content.” Consumers will be able to purchase things such as MP3 music files, articles, maps, software and […]

Online ad spending, projected by the Internet Advertising Bureau to be close to $2 billion for 1998, doesn’t seem to be making a dent in newspaper ad spending. Newspaper advertising expenditures in 1998 totaled $43.9 billion, an increase of 6.3 percent over 1997, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America. For the […]

Pontiac is sponsoring The Sporting News Online’s third annual “Beat the Bracket” contest in which fans compete for trips for two to the year 2000 men’s or women’s NCAA basketball championships. “Beat the Bracket” gives site visitors a chance to pick the winners of each game in the upcoming NCAA playoffs. Then, fans can track […]

Britain unveiled plans for a new legal framework for electronic commerce designed to spur its growth and boost public confidence in using e-mail and the Internet. But the government appeared to water down earlier proposals to allow police sweeping powers to gain access to coded documents held on computers, according to a Reuters report. Trade […]

InfoXpress.com Inc., a privately held Internet company that develops, markets and implements customized interactive solutions for media companies, has launched Music Gear Online on behalf of a Miller Freeman Inc. (MFI). “InfoXpress.com has created an online product that allows us to go way beyond the traditional banner advertising model to generate revenue via the Web,” […]