Second Release for AdsML Framework

AdsML Bookings Specification Released for Public Review

Comprehensive Specification for Newspapers, Magazines

Second Release for AdsML Framework is First in Suite of Standards to Address a Discrete, Advertising-Industry Business Process

Amsterdam, Netherlands. October 13, 2004.

The first process-specific standard in the AdsML Framework's suite of standards was released here today for public review and comment. The AdsML Bookings Specification, which is complete for the industry's print media, enables advertisers and publishers to query, make and confirm ad space reservations for ads appearing in newspapers and magazines.

Working towards an all-digital future

By implementing the AdsML Booking Specification, advertisers, publishers and others involved in the booking process will be able to request and receive quotations, make and confirm reservations, and change and cancel orders. Bookings and content can be linked, which will increase accuracy. The information necessary to place and produce an ad — including information on placed-by, insertion period, advertiser, booking party, publication, price and production details — can be nested in the AdsML Framework, sent electronically and read by the receiving party. All this will happen automatically, without high levels of human intervention or increased risk of human error.

"This is a tremendous step toward re-inventing the advertising industry as an essentially paperless business, where every advertising sales staff is free to sell, and the vital but repetitive operational tasks can be managed through a sophisticated all-digital workflow," says Allan Marshall, Chief Operations & Technology Director of Associated Newspapers, Ltd., London, U.K. "The greater efficiency and increased accuracy produced will have significant benefits for both advertisers and publishers that ultimately will show up on the bottom line."

In Darmstadt, Germany, Reiner Mittelbach, CEO of Ifra, which is a co-sponsor of the AdsML Consortium, adds, "It can fairly be said that business today is electronically managed, but the advertising industry, until now, has lagged behind many others in implementing globally-recognized systems that make the most of this fact. The AdsML Bookings Specification, operating within the AdsML Framework, changes that and opens up new opportunities for everyone."

Bookings standard receives wide support

Development of the AdsML Bookings Specification has not been solely a matter of technical design. Support for the AdsML effort was sought from owners of existing standards and formats that address similar businesses processes. In meetings with other standards groups and organizations, AdsML leaders elicited support from them and have embarked on a series of cooperative efforts.

"AdsML enjoys wide support not only from publishers, but also from major systems vendors, advertisers and industry associations," says Tony Stewart, director of consulting for RivCom, Swindon, U.K., and chair of the AdsML Technical Working Group. "The Bookings Specification already replaces CREST, a North American standard for classified advertising owned by the NAA [Newspaper Association of America]. NAA agreed to cease future development of that standard and support the AdsML standards effort instead." NAA, based in Vienna, Va., U.S.A., is the other co-sponsor of the AdsML Consortium.

In addition, NAA and the International Digital Enterprise Alliance (IDEAlliance), Alexandria, Va., U.S.A., have agreed to merge the capabilities of the SpaceXML Standard for display advertising — owned by the two organizations — with AdsML standards-writing efforts. Likewise, Ifra will fold AdConnexion, a European standard, into the AdsML Framework. Other standards developers have agreed to work cooperatively.

Pilot projects utilizing the AdsML Framework and AdsML Bookings Specification have already begun in Finland, led by Kaerkimedia Oy, a media sales agency owned by 33 Finnish newspapers and, in the U.K., by Associated Newspapers Limited, which has pilots for electronic ad bookings and for ad content delivery.

In addition, Agfa announced that their Ad Manager product will soon be AdsML compliant. "It's time that publishers were relieved of some of the cost and pain of systems integration," says Agfa's Strategic Business Development Manager/Newspapers Jack Knadjian, Antwerp, Belgium. "With an open standard like AdsML, we can all save time and money when implementing system solutions."

Standard enters public review, comment period

The AdsML Bookings Specification, which was a year in development, was approved for release on October 9 by the AdsML Consortium, meeting here in plenary session. Formal public release occurred today at a special session on the AdsML Framework at IfraExpo, an international trade exhibition for newspaper companies and their partners produced annually by Ifra, a leading international association for newspaper and media publishing.

The AdsML Bookings Specification is available for download at the AdsML Web site: www.adsml.org/resources. Development is continuing on the bookings standard for online, SMS, MMS and radio and television, which will be released at a later date.

About the AdsML Framework

The 'AdsML Framework for E-commerce Business Standards for the Advertising Industry' is a group of intra-active standards, now in development, that will govern the discrete business processes associated with the beginning-to-end lifecycle of any advertisement. The specifications will, in time, set the rules by which all forms of advertising are exchanged electronically. The standards also will communicate with each other within the AdsML Envelope. The AdsML Envelope, which is the foundation standard of the AdsML Framework, is defined in AdsML 1.0, which was released for public review in October 2003 and approved in June 2004.

About the AdsML Consortium and Its Partners

The mission of the AdsML Consortium is to develop a global, XML-based (eXtensible Markup Language) standard that will unify and extend existing advertising standards and automate advertising business processes — across all types of media, for all stages of the lifecycle of an advertisement, across all segments of the advertising industry. It is supported by Ifra, a leading international association for newspaper and media publishing, and the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), which represents more than 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. The IDEAlliance, a membership organization advancing standards and best practices in publishing and content-driven enterprises, also is a Consortium supporter. The Consortium's strategic partners are Agfa, Associated Newspapers, Ltd., and Time, Inc.

The Consortium's members include a growing list of companies and organizations united to create a set of internationally-adopted specifications and business processes for the exchange of advertising information and content.

Contact

AdsML Consortium e. V.
Washingtonplatz 1
64287 Darmstadt
Germany
Tel: +49 6151-733-766
WWW: www.adsml.org

Sue Fine
Technology Communications Manager
Newspaper Association of America
Vienna, Va., USA
Tel: +1 703-902-1832
Email: press@adsml.org or fines@naa.org

Marc Verbiest
Public Relations Manager
Agfa-Gevaert Graphic Systems
Mortsel, Belgium
Tel: +32 3-444-4101
Email: marc.verbiest@agfa.com

Thomas Jacob
Business Manager, Asia
Associated Mediabase
Singapore
Tel: +65-9740 3944
Email: thomas.jacob@mediabase.co.uk

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. General references in "AdsML Consortium."

SEARCH Advanced Search ABOUT Site Map CP RSS Channel Contact Us Sponsoring CP About Our Sponsors NEWS Cover Stories Articles & Papers Press Releases CORE STANDARDS XML SGML Schemas XSL/XSLT/XPath XLink XML Query CSS SVG TECHNOLOGY REPORTS XML Applications General Apps Government Apps Academic Apps EVENTS LIBRARY Introductions FAQs Bibliography Technology and Society Semantics Tech Topics Software Related Standards Historic	Second Release for AdsML Framework AdsML Bookings Specification Released for Public Review Comprehensive Specification for Newspapers, Magazines Second Release for AdsML Framework is First in Suite of Standards to Address a Discrete, Advertising-Industry Business Process Amsterdam, Netherlands. October 13, 2004. The first process-specific standard in the AdsML Framework's suite of standards was released here today for public review and comment. The AdsML Bookings Specification, which is complete for the industry's print media, enables advertisers and publishers to query, make and confirm ad space reservations for ads appearing in newspapers and magazines. Working towards an all-digital future By implementing the AdsML Booking Specification, advertisers, publishers and others involved in the booking process will be able to request and receive quotations, make and confirm reservations, and change and cancel orders. Bookings and content can be linked, which will increase accuracy. The information necessary to place and produce an ad — including information on placed-by, insertion period, advertiser, booking party, publication, price and production details — can be nested in the AdsML Framework, sent electronically and read by the receiving party. All this will happen automatically, without high levels of human intervention or increased risk of human error. "This is a tremendous step toward re-inventing the advertising industry as an essentially paperless business, where every advertising sales staff is free to sell, and the vital but repetitive operational tasks can be managed through a sophisticated all-digital workflow," says Allan Marshall, Chief Operations & Technology Director of Associated Newspapers, Ltd., London, U.K. "The greater efficiency and increased accuracy produced will have significant benefits for both advertisers and publishers that ultimately will show up on the bottom line." In Darmstadt, Germany, Reiner Mittelbach, CEO of Ifra, which is a co-sponsor of the AdsML Consortium, adds, "It can fairly be said that business today is electronically managed, but the advertising industry, until now, has lagged behind many others in implementing globally-recognized systems that make the most of this fact. The AdsML Bookings Specification, operating within the AdsML Framework, changes that and opens up new opportunities for everyone." Bookings standard receives wide support Development of the AdsML Bookings Specification has not been solely a matter of technical design. Support for the AdsML effort was sought from owners of existing standards and formats that address similar businesses processes. In meetings with other standards groups and organizations, AdsML leaders elicited support from them and have embarked on a series of cooperative efforts. "AdsML enjoys wide support not only from publishers, but also from major systems vendors, advertisers and industry associations," says Tony Stewart, director of consulting for RivCom, Swindon, U.K., and chair of the AdsML Technical Working Group. "The Bookings Specification already replaces CREST, a North American standard for classified advertising owned by the NAA [Newspaper Association of America]. NAA agreed to cease future development of that standard and support the AdsML standards effort instead." NAA, based in Vienna, Va., U.S.A., is the other co-sponsor of the AdsML Consortium. In addition, NAA and the International Digital Enterprise Alliance (IDEAlliance), Alexandria, Va., U.S.A., have agreed to merge the capabilities of the SpaceXML Standard for display advertising — owned by the two organizations — with AdsML standards-writing efforts. Likewise, Ifra will fold AdConnexion, a European standard, into the AdsML Framework. Other standards developers have agreed to work cooperatively. Pilot projects utilizing the AdsML Framework and AdsML Bookings Specification have already begun in Finland, led by Kaerkimedia Oy, a media sales agency owned by 33 Finnish newspapers and, in the U.K., by Associated Newspapers Limited, which has pilots for electronic ad bookings and for ad content delivery. In addition, Agfa announced that their Ad Manager product will soon be AdsML compliant. "It's time that publishers were relieved of some of the cost and pain of systems integration," says Agfa's Strategic Business Development Manager/Newspapers Jack Knadjian, Antwerp, Belgium. "With an open standard like AdsML, we can all save time and money when implementing system solutions." Standard enters public review, comment period The AdsML Bookings Specification, which was a year in development, was approved for release on October 9 by the AdsML Consortium, meeting here in plenary session. Formal public release occurred today at a special session on the AdsML Framework at IfraExpo, an international trade exhibition for newspaper companies and their partners produced annually by Ifra, a leading international association for newspaper and media publishing. The AdsML Bookings Specification is available for download at the AdsML Web site: www.adsml.org/resources. Development is continuing on the bookings standard for online, SMS, MMS and radio and television, which will be released at a later date. About the AdsML Framework The 'AdsML Framework for E-commerce Business Standards for the Advertising Industry' is a group of intra-active standards, now in development, that will govern the discrete business processes associated with the beginning-to-end lifecycle of any advertisement. The specifications will, in time, set the rules by which all forms of advertising are exchanged electronically. The standards also will communicate with each other within the AdsML Envelope. The AdsML Envelope, which is the foundation standard of the AdsML Framework, is defined in AdsML 1.0, which was released for public review in October 2003 and approved in June 2004. About the AdsML Consortium and Its Partners The mission of the AdsML Consortium is to develop a global, XML-based (eXtensible Markup Language) standard that will unify and extend existing advertising standards and automate advertising business processes — across all types of media, for all stages of the lifecycle of an advertisement, across all segments of the advertising industry. It is supported by Ifra, a leading international association for newspaper and media publishing, and the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), which represents more than 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. The IDEAlliance, a membership organization advancing standards and best practices in publishing and content-driven enterprises, also is a Consortium supporter. The Consortium's strategic partners are Agfa, Associated Newspapers, Ltd., and Time, Inc. The Consortium's members include a growing list of companies and organizations united to create a set of internationally-adopted specifications and business processes for the exchange of advertising information and content. Contact AdsML Consortium e. V. Washingtonplatz 1 64287 Darmstadt Germany Tel: +49 6151-733-766 WWW: www.adsml.org Sue Fine Technology Communications Manager Newspaper Association of America Vienna, Va., USA Tel: +1 703-902-1832 Email: press@adsml.org or fines@naa.org Marc Verbiest Public Relations Manager Agfa-Gevaert Graphic Systems Mortsel, Belgium Tel: +32 3-444-4101 Email: marc.verbiest@agfa.com Thomas Jacob Business Manager, Asia Associated Mediabase Singapore Tel: +65-9740 3944 Email: thomas.jacob@mediabase.co.uk Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. General references in "AdsML Consortium."