NEW YORK, May 12, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- ContextWeb, Inc., a leading contextual advertising company and operator of the ADSDAQ Ad Exchange, announced today that Jay Sears has been promoted to the newly created position of Executive Vice President of Strategic Products & Business Development. In his new role, Mr. Sears will spearhead the strategy, direction and operation of the ADSDAQ Exchange which includes the self-service Selling and Buying Desks, the newly created Agency Trading Desk and their associated P&L's. Previously, Mr. Sears served as senior vice president of strategic products and business development.
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"Well-versed in the media business, Jay has been an integral part of building ContextWeb and executing on our vision for the ADSDAQ Ad Exchange," says Anand Subramanian, CEO of ContextWeb, Inc. "His deep understanding of the online marketplace combined with his strategic and operational skills, make Jay the right person for this critical position."
"Marketers want scale, marketers want control and marketers want insights. ContextWeb's vision and its execution on in-market product delivers all three -- scale, control and insight. Too often others are asking marketers to settle for less," says Mr. Sears. "We are delivering on our promise to bring premium inventory to buyers where they can assemble scaled audiences in brand safe environments."
In less than four years, Sears created the company's original publisher development team and launched the self service ADSDAQ Exchange Selling Desk, in use by more than 5,000 web publishers today. Currently, he is managing ContextWeb's Agency Trading Desk, in a private beta with several ad agencies including Omnicom and WPP, and will oversee the introduction of a self service Buying Desk for smaller advertisers this summer. He was instrumental in creating the company's advisory board and speaks about Internet advertising at various industry events including Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld and interactive marketing associations including ones in Boston, Chicago and Dallas.
Prior to joining ContextWeb, Mr. Sears, 41, was senior vice president business & strategy development for EDGAR Online from 1997 to 2004 where he drove the strategy that took the company from an under $1 million entrepreneurial business to a publicly traded NASDAQ company. He created more than 300 partnerships including ones with Yahoo!, The NASDAQ Stock Market and Microsoft. Prior to EDGAR Online, he served as vice president marketing for Wolff New Media, the subject of Burn Rate by Vanity Fair media columnist Michael Wolff. Mr. Sears holds a B.A. in political science from Kenyon College.
ContextWeb's ADSDAQ Exchange (http://exchange.contextweb.com) is the only online exchange where both advertisers and publishers have complete control. The Exchange's patent-pending, page-level contextual technology offers advertisers efficient pricing and extensive reach, making inventory on the Exchange "brand-safe" and comparable to a site-specific or portal buy.
The ADSDAQ Exchange ranks among the top 20 ad-supported properties, according to ComScore Media Metrix, and reaches +94 million monthly unique visitors (March, 2008). The Exchange includes more than 400 advertisers, including all of the top 10 marketing organizations, and more than 5,000 publishers. In 2007, Deloitte's New York Region Technology Fast 50 recognized ContextWeb as the 17th fastest growing company in the New York area. The company's investors include leading venture capital firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson ("DFJ"), DFJ Gotham Ventures and Updata Partners.
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