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Paste magazine adds sponsors with Web site revamp

Paste magazine has revamped its companion Web site at www.pastemagazine.com with automaker Acura as its first official sponsor.

PasteMagazine.com, dedicated to the same music and entertainment issues as the monthly magazine, features an Acura roadblock on its home page and smaller Acura ads throughout the site. Other companies have ads throughout the site, but Acura is recognized as the official sponsor.

“We’re hearing from more advertisers that they’re looking for high-impact ways to get in front of audiences,” said Caren Kelleher, marketing director at Paste.

“As for the single sponsor, it puts it in front of an audience with a great presence,” she continued. “It is a great tool for visibility and it allows us to showcase some of our new advertising units that we’ve introduced – a medium-rectangle unit, a leader board and ads available within the Paste Station.”

The Paste Station is a new addition, and a standalone player that allows users to stream exclusive music and video content from the site. Previously, exclusive site content was available only to Paste subscribers.

All content on the new site is free currently, but Kelleher said that future offerings might be available only to subscribers.

Paste has also expanded its blog offerings to include photos and more staff writing. A new blog, “Dear Diary,” will feature journals, music and concert videos from musicians on tour.

“I hope readers find it gives them more of the things that they love about the print,” Kelleher said. “We certainly look for increased traffic but also increased engagement, which is valuable to advertisers and to us.

“We’re trying to give people more reasons to check back more often, as well as expanded news content,” she added. “If they’re coming to Paste first for information, that’s great.”

Acura’s sponsorship of the Paste site will run through the first week of the revamp. The monthly magazine is looking for new sponsors for August. Acura advertised with Paste in print in 2007, but the Web site sponsorship and advertising is independent of the print advertising.

Kelleher says Paste is looking to continue with more integrated advertising packages, such as those featured on the site’s free podcast.

PasteMagazine.com receives 220,000 unique visitors a month. The monthly print magazine has a guaranteed rate base of 180,000. A full-page ad in print costs $20,700. The PasteMagazine.com open rate for online advertising ranges from CPM of 12 to 18, depending on unit and placement.

Paste Media Group LLC, based in Decatur, GA, owns Paste magazine, PasteMagazine.com, PasteStore.com and the listening-station program Paste Recommends.

“The site capitalizes our position as a media company more than a magazine,” Kelleher said. “Our readers have always taken to the multimedia aspect of Paste. It adds to the functionality of the site as well as keeping readers on our pages more often.”

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