OpenX Acquires JumpTime

Publishers, in print and online, have long sold space to advertisers based on the perceived value of the publisher’s audience. The quality of that audience, in turn, was based on its location, income, education level and propensity to buy the product the advertiser sold.

Digital advertising has grown in sophistication, allowing advertisers to tailor messages for specific audiences and to buy those audiences. Still, technologies that inform publishers of the value of editorial content have not been widely available.

On Monday, OpenX Technologies, a provider of digital advertising technologies, will announce that it has acquired JumpTime, a company that helps publishers determine what each piece of their digital content is worth.

Tim Cadogan, the chief executive of OpenX, said the merger would provide technology that makes it easier for publishers to “connect the left brain and the right brain of the publishing organization.”

“You have to produce content that is exciting,” Mr. Cadogan said. “The way you make money is advertising. Those two worlds need to be connected.” Instead of focusing on pages that generate high C.P.M. rates, or cost per thousand views, publishers should focus on content that encourages users to go deeper into a site and spend more time there, he said. “If the publishers are able to create more engagement on good content, then those are great places to advertise,” he said. “That’s where you want to be.”

Using JumpTime technology, publishers have access to a dashboard that shows, in real time, the value of each photo, article and other content on a Web page.

The economics are simple, said Michele DiLorenzo, the senior vice president of OpenX and former chief executive of JumpTime. A publisher can focus on attracting users to a piece of content that generates $18 for every thousand views, or they can focus on drawing users to many pieces of content that have lower individual C.P.M.’s — say five pieces valued at $5 each — but can end up generating a higher total revenue.

“If you only think about the immediate value, you don’t know what value is. You’re going to consistently make mistakes,” Ms. DiLorenzo said.