From Editor & Publisher, 02 February 2006. Reprinted with permission.
NEW YORK The AdsML Consortium has released new versions of its standards for bookings and materials delivery for newspapers and magazines as part of the publication of AdsML Framework 2.0 Release 6, which includes copies of all previously released schemas and documentation, including standards already approved.
Both proposed standards are available for review and comment at www.adsml.org.
The AdsML Framework for E-Commerce Business Standards for Advertising is the first international data-exchange standard designed to manage the electronic transfer of information throughout the advertising industry.
Consortium President Harald Löffler, research manager at international newspaper publishing association Ifra, said the new release “resolves challenges” for dealing with inserts and content delivery.
The latest bookings specification provides a consistent way to implement and manage the ordering process for insert, classified, and ROP ads — including quotes, reservations, orders and status messages, and the appropriate responses. Other types of advertising can be handled using a generic subset of the specification. The information-exchange process supports both synchronous and broadcast exchange protocols, as well as “exchange choreography” that prevents out-of-order message processing.
“With this new version of AdsML Bookings, we have addressed virtually all known open issues,” said Tony Stewart, RivCom Inc. director of consulting and chair of the AdsML Technical Working Group. Expecting only “minor fixes” this year, he encouraged use of the release “as the basis for production implementations.”
More than a year in development and ready for public evaluation, the materials-delivery standard proposes to govern the way ad content is delivered to publishers electronically.
“Every facet of the advertising supply chain has publicly announced their need to implement Electronic Data Interchange,” said Alan Darling, executive vice president at Vio Worldwide, supplier of products and services for distributing and managing advertising and digital media. Calling the new AdsML release “the tool set that can be used to create solutions for the print media segment right now,” Darling said immediate savings will accrue “in every step in the supply chain,” more than repaying the initial technology investment.
The AdsML Consortium’s goal is an open standard that aims to unify and extend existing advertising standards and automate business processes across all types of media, throughout an ad’s lifecycle, and across all segments of the advertising industry.
Supported by Ifra, the Newspaper Association of America, and IDEAlliance, a print industry information-technology solutions provider, the consortium’s strategic partners are Agfa, Associated Newspapers Ltd., and Time Inc. Its membership consists of a growing number of companies and organizations united to create the set of media-neutral, internationally adopted specifications.