Saint Paul, MN – Internet Broadcasting, the leading local Internet solution provider for broadcast publishers and local advertisers, announced today the appointment of former AOL executive Luke Edson as Chief Revenue Officer.

Luke Edson will oversee all of Internet Broadcasting’s revenue generating activities, including national advertising sales, business development, revenue strategy and advertising systems.  Luke will be based out of New York and will report directly to David Lebow, the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

“I’m delighted to have Luke Edson join the team” said David Lebow, President and CEO of Internet Broadcasting. “Luke’s industry expertise and record of increasing revenue will be a tremendous asset to our company and to our partners.  With the addition of Luke to our management team, we’re adding a strong, energetic leader who will help take us to the next level in generating revenue. This move wil further solidifty IB’s leadership as the premier local advertising platform for local and national advertisers to reach consumers with branded advertising.”

“I am very excited to be joining Internet Broadcasting. The company has an incredible portfolio of assets with significant opportunities to create new and valuable revenue sources as well as to deliver innovative advertising solutions for local advertisers. ”

A seasoned online media executive, Luke has held several senior positions with AOL over the past 10 years in business development, category sales, and national sales. He is also an accomplished sales manager running sales teams in both Dallas and New York. During the course of his 10 year tenure, Luke completed several major turnarounds, consistently excelled in a marketplace defined by constant change, and helped to drive significant growth in AOL’s client base and ad revenues. He has a superior command of business development, advertising sales, ad technology, and all forms of ad products from display to performance.

About Internet Broadcasting
Established in 1996, IB is a leading local media network that builds powerful solutions – products, content, and services – that make it easier for publishers and advertisers to reach engaged audiences in relevant environments.

Partnerships with CNN, Cox Television, Hearst-Argyle Television, McGraw-Hill Broadcasting, Meredith Broadcasting, NBC, and Post-Newsweek Stations among others contribute to our reach and success.  In April 2008, the IB Local Network is comprised of over 47MM unique visitors and ranked 41 according to the comScore Media Metrix Ad Focus ranking.

Headquartered in St. Paul, MN with additional offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, and Atlanta, every member of the IB community is committed to innovating for the next era of the Internet.  For more information, visit www.ibsys.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Ayme M. Yaiser
VP Strategic Marketing & Communication
Internet Broadcasting
646.562.5908

Congratulations to all of our broadcast partners, which collectively earned an assortment of recent industry awards for website excellence.  Topping the list with highly coveted Radio/Television News Director’s Association (RTNDA) Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, were the Cox Television website in Seattle and the NBC station in San Diego.  Several other IB partner websites were recognized by The Associated Press as their respective state’s Best TV News Website.

New York, NY and St. Paul, MN  – Internet Broadcasting, the leading local Internet solution provider for broadcast publishers and local advertisers announced today that it set all time traffic records in first quarter of 2008.  The IB network drove record unique visitors and page views benefitting local television stations and local and national advertising customers.

UV’s grew, with 17.7MM in January, 19.6MM in February and 17.0MM in March.  This compares to 13.8MM, 15.4MM, and 13.9MM in 2007.  The record usage is attributed to IB’s election coverage, strong weather franchises providing on line functionality during winter storms as well as ongoing SEO and distribution increases.

Engagement also increased significantly in Q108, creating a record-setting 755.7MM total visitor minutes across the IB network of sites.  The IB Politics section registered three consecutive page view records from round-the-clock election coverage, garnering 3.9MM, 4.4MM and 6.5MM PVs according to WebTrends.  Storms across the country drove a record 84.4MM Weather section page views in February alone. 

The television broadcasters in the IB network benefitted as part of this record usage.  Specifically, 36 stations hit records in terms of unique visitors and/or page views throughout Q108.  Most noteworthy, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, IB has 27 TV sites that ranked #1 within the top 50 DMAs.

IB’s strategic referral relationship with CNN.com continues to benefit CNN, IB partner stations and the IB network.  In first quarter it resulted in a 41% lift versus 2007 according to WebTrends - generating tens of millions of incremental visits to IB sites.  Further, the relationship resulted in record unique visitors and consecutive number-one news rankings for CNN Digital Network, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.  

IB CEO David Lebow commented “We’re highly committed to our stations winning in their markets.  We’re doubling down on providing market leading tools and services to our partners so they maximize their usage and their online advertising revenue.  In first Quarter of 2008 the weather and elections projects with our stations paid off.  We have a big year of innovation and enhancements planned to build on this for our partners.”

About Internet Broadcasting
Established in 1996, IB is a leading local media network that builds powerful solutions – products, content, and services – that make it easier for publishers and advertisers to reach engaged audiences in relevant environments.

Committed partnerships with CNN, Cox Television, Hearst-Argyle Television, McGraw-Hill Broadcasting, Meredith Broadcasting, NBC, and Post-Newsweek Stations contribute to our phenomenal reach.  In March 2008, the IB Local Network is comprised of over 47MM unique visitors and ranked 40 according to the comScore Media Metrix Ad Focus ranking.

Headquartered in St. Paul, MN, with additional offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, and Atlanta, every member of the IB community is committed to innovating for the next era of the Internet.  For more information, visit www.ibsys.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Ayme M. Yaiser
VP Strategic Marketing & Communication
Internet Broadcasting
646.562.5908

In April 2008, David Lebow sat down with Broadcasting & Cable’s Mike Malone for a “Take 5” Q&A Session. 

To read the full article, click here.

Today, comScore released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties for February 2008 from the comScore Media Metrix service. The following highlights key findings within the Top 50 Web Rankings.

• According to comScore’s Ad Focus Ranking - the “IB Local Network” custom-entity reached in excess of 26 percent (47.9MM) of the more than 185MM Americans online in February
• This custom entity represents the potential reach of the entire IB media network of 342 sites – the 76 IB “hosted” sites and 266 extended advertising network sites.
• comScore’s Ad-Focus Top 50 list is a well-known ranker among agencies, advertisers and publishers, and serves as an ideal platform for showcasing our growing media network to the marketplace.

This is an exciting time for IB and we are committed to becoming more relevant for our customers – by innovating on our customers’ websites, connecting advertisers to our growing network of consumers they want most – helping in the achievement of national reach, with local relevance.

As part of its ongoing commitment to customer satisfaction, Internet Broadcasting rolled out a brand new video player on a slew of broadcast partner websites on Thursday, March 13. The new video player launched on the Hearst-Argyle, Meredith and McGraw-Hill sites with plans for the Post-Newsweek and Cox partner sites to roll out shortly.

Incorporating a whole host of “firsts” for IB, the new video player aligns heavily with IB’s corporate objectives: creating innovative products and content to engage local Internet users and creating win-win partnerships with customers. The new player will enable IB partners to better showcase and monetize their video assets, while giving consumers a simpler overall user experience by successfully incorporating both Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight technologies into a single, seamless video application.

To see the new video player in action, click here.

Saint Paul, MN and New York, NY –  Internet Broadcasting, a leader in local internet audience aggregation and advertising, announced today that it has appointed online veterans, Jeff Kimball, as Chief Operating Officer, and Tony Dunaif, as GM/Local Media Network, to its Management team.

Jeff Kimball as Chief Operating Officer
Internet and technology industry executive Jeff Kimball brings to IB more than twenty years of experience building, growing and operating successful Internet and start-up companies. With specific experience running Product Marketing, Program Management, Design, Operations, Technology and QA teams, Jeff will be responsible for all aspects of customer solutions and product delivery. In this capacity, Jeff will approach the objective of winning in local by developing innovative tools, web products and services that empower publishers to create large web audiences and to serve advertisers at scale. Jeff will be based out of St. Paul, MN and will report directly to David Lebow, the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

Most recently, Jeff was Senior Vice President of Product Development at Vive Computing (formerly NHC Systems, Inc.) where he was responsible for delivering complete solutions – product and technology – to help Vive fundamentally alter the way consumers and small businesses purchased, used and received support for computers. Prior to Vive, Jeff spent 11 years at AOL where he held numerous positions developing at-scale customer, advertiser, and publishing solutions.  At AOL Jeff led the business and product planning for more than 10 major releases of the AOL service; he was responsible for the product direction and delivery for the most successful consumer facing products AOL ever produced (including AOL.com, e-mail, instant messaging, search, parental controls).  In addition to his work domestically, Jeff also led the unified European product and technology strategy – managing teams in London, Hamburg, Paris, Dublin, Luxembourg, California and Virginia.

Tony Dunaif as GM of Local Media Networks
Media and business development executive Tony Dunaif joins IB as GM of the newly created Local Media Network, and will be responsible for building and growing major external relationships across the broadcast stations and groups, CNN and expanding to develop new distribution partnerships. Additionally, Tony will work with the Customer Solutions team in their delivery of solutions to partners and advertisers. Tony will be based out of New York, NY, reporting directly to David Lebow.

Most recently, Tony was Vice President, Content Partnerships and International Development at Brightcove – the leading Internet TV platform that enables content owners to create, publish and monetize broadband channels. In this capacity, he was responsible for closing business agreements with leading media companies, both domestically and abroad. Prior to Brightcove, Tony held several senior posts throughout his 12 year tenure at MTV Networks. As Senior Vice President of Business Development, he successfully created new businesses, revenue streams and strategic plans that supported and enhanced the MTV brand. He also played a key role in developing Broadband, Gaming, Mobile, Satellite Radio, Hispanic Media, Video on Demand, and HDTV initiatives.

“IB is undergoing a fundamental transformation, and we’re organizing our management team around aggressive goals for the Company and our customers.  I’m delighted to have Jeff Kimball and Tony Dunaif join our pursuit of making local work on the Internet” said David Lebow, President and CEO of Internet Broadcasting. “We are committed to innovating for the next era of the Internet by investing in our relationships with publishers, advertisers and web consumers. We’re equally committed to becoming more relevant for our TV partners by providing tools and services at scale that will help them achieve local Internet ubiquity. With the addition of Jeff and Tony to our team, we have the skills and expertise to make our vision a reality.” 

About Internet Broadcasting
Established in 1996, Internet Broadcasting is the leading local publisher and online ad network.  The company enables publishers and advertisers to reach local in-market consumers through its national network of more than 450 local media Web sites reaching more than 40 million monthly visitors. The Company creates Web products and distributes them as part of strategic partnerships with Hearst-Argyle Television, Post-Newsweek Stations, McGraw-Hill Broadcasting, NBC, Telemundo, Cox Television, and Meredith Broadcasting among others.  The Company also has a strategic partnership with CNN.com.  Company investors include Hearst-Argyle, Post-Newsweek, McGraw-Hill, CNN and Split Rock Partners.  Internet Broadcasting is headquartered in St. Paul, MN and New York, NY, with additional offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, and Atlanta.  For more information, visit www.ibsys.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Ayme M. Yaiser
VP Strategic Marketing & Communication
Internet Broadcasting
651.365.4293

Today IB announced that Jeff Kimball has joined the company as its new Chief Operating Officer.  Most recently Jeff was SVP of Product Development at Vive Computing where he oversaw QA, Product Marketing, and Program Management.  Before Vive, Jeff held various leadership positions with AOL including leading the product and technology strategy across AOL Europe.  Prior to that Jeff was the business/product lead for 10 major releases of AOL spanning US & International; Mac & Linux.

At IB, Jeff will be accountable for the company’s ability to execute and deliver on customer expectations.  He’ll oversee Operations, Design, Technology, Advertising Operations, and Product Development and will be based in the company’s St. Paul headquarters.

A cross-functional team of IB employees recently won the inaugural Sierra Bravo’s F1 Overnight Website Challenge, a website makeover event matching talented volunteer Web pros with Minnesota non-profits.  IB’s winning team consisted of representatives from technology, design and production and was comprised of: Ken Earley, Lance Vo, Jessica Callery, John Shepard, Leon Giles, Kahlil Brewington, Luke Grohovsky and Susan Inglis.

Held on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul Campus, the 24-hour overnight event pitted 11 Web development teams in a friendly competition to create ready to launch or ready to demonstrate new website for a Twin Cities-based non-profit organization.  Whether it was build from scratch or a wholesale re-design, the purpose of the event was to highlight creative ways for non-profits to strategically use web technology to accomplish their missions.

All 11 of the competing teams were evaluated by a panel of judges twice during the proceedings—as well as at the conclusion of the event, when they presented the final Web demonstration in front of their fellow competitors.  And after the votes were all tabulated, Team IB’s Families Moving Forward website was awarded First Place.

“We are, in a word, ecstatic,” said Leslie Frost, Families Moving Forward’s executive director.  “We got so much more than we expected—functionality, content, and coolness. We’re trying to add a little ‘hip’ without scaring off older volunteers while attracting new ones.  And now, when people search online for family homelessness, we’ll pop up first rather than never.”

In addition to pre-event preparation—made more difficult because competing teams are not assigned their non-profit until one hour before competition starts—Team IB credited much of their success to the use of ‘Agile’ practices and the individual strengths of their team members.  “Adapting Agile practices helped us win,” said team member, Leon Giles.  “Creating personas and user stories, along with solid iteration and release planning helped us stay on track, while keeping the customer in the loop.”

These practices were apparently not lost on the judges, who indicated that Team IB’s communication and interaction with the customer was a key reason why they achieved success, noting that, “the customer even liked the acceptance testing process!”

The winning website is expected to be deployed soon, but until that time, congratulations Team IB!

Today, IB announced the opening of a new Los Angeles office, signifying the expansion of the Company’s West Coast sales efforts. To coincide with the office opening, IB has hired two new L.A.-based sales executives, William Nunez and Tabitha Fosse. Both will report JR Andrews, Managing Director of West Coast Sales, who is based in the company’s San Francisco office.