Digg is looking to grow its advertising revenue with the help of a new,
big partner – Microsoft. The software giant and Digg, the popular content
aggregation and rating site, announced an agreement to collaborate to bring
relevant advertising to Digg’s over 17 million unique monthly visitors.
As part of the agreement, which is for three years, Microsoft will be the
exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising on Digg. The two
companies also agreed to work together on future technology and advertising
initiatives. Financial details were not disclosed.
The deal might be a blow to current Digg ad partner Federated Media,
though none of the parties characterized it that way. The companies released
a statement that Microsoft plans to work with Federated to bring integrated
programs to Digg’s users and advertisers.
“Federated Media has unique advertising sales assets that dovetail with
our efforts, and we look forward to working with them,” said Steve
Berkowitz, senior vice president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft in a statement.
Jupiter Research analyst Emily Riley said Federated and Microsoft could
provide healthy competition, which would benefit Digg. “Digg sees an opportunity to
increase the competition for ads on their site and that generally increases
revenue,” Riley told internetnews.com. “Federated’s a bit more of a specialist
and premium-oriented, while big providers like Microsoft and Google bring
depth and more contextual ads.”
Federated CEO John Battelle also put a positive spin on the deal in a blog posting.
“It’s no secret that Digg is the kind of property – like Facebook –
that was bound to get the attention of the Big Guys as they continue to play
an ever more fascinating game of Internet chess. That’s why I’m even more
pleased that FM is continuing to work with Digg and with Microsoft to
further Digg’s goals.”
Digg CEO Kevin Rose also made a brief mention of the deal in his company’s blog, noting that the deal is
similar to one Facebook
signed with Microsoft last year.