Short Takes: Conde Nast Launches Private Exchange

Conde Nast is the latest publisher to get in on the private exchange business. The Admeld-powered exchange will feature all of the Conde Nast content brands, including but will not be extended to include print. The exchange has announced eBay and Macy’s as exchange clients.

The move is significant in that Conde had refused to sell its inventory to ad networks out of fear of compromising its core direct-sales efforts. A big push from private-exchange providers like Admeld and Pubmatic is that publishers do not need to be binary in their approaches to direct and indirect sales.

Conde Nast has experienced a digital growth spurt of sorts, at least on the subscription front, with its digital editions gaining steadily even as it lost 3 percent in print ad page sales during the first three quarters of 2011. On the ad front, Wired publisher Howard Mittman tweeted yesterday that 40 percent of its ad sales revenue now come from digital.

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