A case study: The Los Angeles Times moves to Real Media's Open AdStream.

Publisher's Note: Real Media, Inc. (www.realmedia.com) is a leading provider of Internet Advertising Sales, Ad Serving & Business Management Technology and Media Services for more than 1000 branded content sites and portals worldwide. Real Media represents a worldwide network of local interactive newspaper brands and national vertical content networks. Real Media's proprietary advertising management software - Open AdStream' (OAS) - the highly-scalable, reliable and affordable solution, is the premier choice for web sites, serving more than 6 billion ads each month for more than 700 sites worldwide. Real Media's customers include some of the world's top web sites including O'Globo, El Comercio, El Mercurio, The New York Times, Weather.com, USA Today, MP3, and Playboy. Following is a case study that illustrates how OAS came to the assistance of The Los Angeles Times.

In the spring of 1998, The Los Angeles Times began to reevaluate all of its ad-serving options when it became apparent that their current ad-serving system wasn't performing to the level needed by a rapidly growing major news site. The company was seeking an ad-serving solution that would work more efficiently and reliably with the hardware and platform in place at the time.

"The pre-existing system was rapidly failing and took too long to push data across," says Donna Stokley, online advertising sales manager for The Los Angeles Times. "In addition, it occupied too many of our system resources. As (our) advertiser base grew, it was obvious that the current ad-serving system wasn't allowing us to schedule ads, target users and provide reports in a manner that satisfied our clients' needs."

After evaluating several ad-serving solutions and their system requirements, the company decided that Open AdStream', from Real Media, was the solution that most efficiently and effectively met its requirements.

An installation date was scheduled for the winter of 1998. But soon, a situation arose that called for a faster transition.

The Monica Lewinsky scandal spiked traffic on the newspaper's Web site to high levels. Managers at the company were concerned about the ability of their existing ad servers and platform to handle the large volume and deliver ad inventory effectively. As a result, the decision was made to transition to Open AdStream three months ahead of schedule.

As Stokley recalls, "Real Media immediately responded. Open Ad Stream was installed in the fall of 1998 and the process took all of three days."

The Los Angeles Times saw the benefits of using Open AdStream instantly. Without the need to upgrade or add to existing hardware, Web site managers were able to more effectively manage their ad inventory, and more reliably target and deliver their advertisers' campaigns.

"The advertisers liked the improved reporting and responded favorably to the switch," Stokley says. "Additionally, the system (OAS) better integrated with our Web server and occupied less overhead."

The Los Angeles Times case is just one example of how Open AdStream uses hardware more efficiently than other competitive ad-servers, saving the customer in hardware costs over the long run, while providing the most advanced ad-serving technology on the market. AdStream allows The Los Angeles Times to provide its customers with detailed reports and profiles of the visitors to its site, while targeting, delivering and tracking advertiser campaigns efficiently and effectively.

latimes.com is one of the leading sources for national and international news and information on the World Wide Web. latimes.com has more than 50,000 content pages and more than 35,000 stories on the site every day. Every day, more than 3,000 stories are uploaded to provide readers with the day's news. In addition, users have access to a million stories from past issues.

About Open AdStream - The Smart Ad Management Solution

Open AdStream' (OAS) is the leading Internet advertising software solution. With its easy-to-use interface, OAS allows web publishers to better manage their business with one complete system designed to automate their Internet advertising needs.

With OAS, publishers can control the delivery of individual ads, generate detailed reports and maximize ad placement across their entire web site. OAS helps web sites better manage their Internet advertising business by offering:

* The ability to target and deliver Internet ads to individual visitors.

* Reports on critical data about each visitor to better target marketing efforts.

* The resources to drive more advertising campaigns and manage inventory.

* Added value to the web site by delivering advertising based on visitors interests.

* The resources to demand higher premium for delivering targeted advertising campaigns.