MediaCentral Progresses in Digitally Transforming Analogue Legacy Publications

• Reports +389% month over month increase in programmatic ad revenue for NOW and the Straight in April 2020
• Launches proprietary marketing technology automating the capture of behavioral data to improve user experience, increase traffic and enhance advertiser solutions
• Continues to build monetizable digital strategy as it works to consolidate a 100 million influential consumers of independent urban publications across North America

Media Central Corporation Inc. announced impressive revenue growth from the launch of its programmatic advertising initiative across its wholly owned properties NOW Magazine (“NOW”) and the Georgia Straight (“Straight). The AI-led programmatic advertising solution is one part of the Company’s latest initiatives in its efforts to monetize its growing audience of 6.5 million influential consumers through technology.

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In March 2020, MediaCentral expanded its ad inventory to include more diverse display and programmatic formats. As a result new ad units were created leading to a surge in ad impressions being served at both NOW Magazine, with an increase of 405% (4,494,026 in March 2020, 22,694,713 in April 2020) and the Straight with an increase of 25% (19,935,762 in March 2020, 24,846,567 in April 2020)¹. This strategic move resulted in NOW and the Straight combined, reporting a significant increase of +389%¹ in programmatic ad revenue in April 2020.

Since acquiring its iconic urban publications NOW in November 2019 and the Straight in February 2020, the Company has executed an aggressive digital transformation strategy to migrate the titles into profitable, leading-edge digital platforms. The Company’s investment in developing and promoting high-quality content from omnichannel distribution and expansion to developing new trending verticals like esports and psychedelics has driven previously announced double-digit user growth month-over-month across all properties. As MediaCentral’s audience reach accelerates, the Company has initiated new technology-based revenue streams to monetize its readers.

“Our digital advertising revenues are projected to dramatically surpass our legacy ad model as we move forward with our tech-heavy strategy. We are leveraging the latest technology to optimize bottom line growth, while ensuring our readers have the best possible experience. Programmatic ads are successful because they use machine learning to ensure consumer demand ad placements, driven by data, in real time,” said Anton Tikhomirov Senior Vice President, Technology and Architecture of MediaCentral. “We have seen impressive growth from our programmatic ads and are excited for this continued trajectory as we move forward with supplementary digital revenue drivers.”

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In addition to the programmatic advertising initiative, MediaCentral recently announced its foray into affiliate marketing as another digital revenue stream.

The Company has also moved forward with the implementation of a new proprietary marketing automation software. This software will unite all MediaCentral’s publications and digital assets and will allow the Company to collect first-party data including behavioral information in one centralized location. As a result, MediaCentral will be able to improve the user experience through content personalization, increase traffic to all properties through cross-promotion, and enhance solutions for advertisers by providing access to highly segmented demographic data.

“We are taking an audience-centric approach to growth. The implementation of this latest technology will enable MediaCentral to leverage data to better serve our audience with relevant content that speaks directly to them. As a result, audience engagement on MCC properties will increase, providing advertisers with more diverse opportunities to strategically make an impression and promote their brands,” said Tikhomirov.

The introduction of affiliate marketing, marketing automation software and programmatic advertising provides attractive opportunities for advertisers looking to target MediaCentral’s premium audience of 6.5 million urban, educated and affluent consumers and situates the Company to successfully capitalizes on the US$333 billion digital advertising² industry.

MediaCentral is actively searching for synergistic and accretive acquisition opportunities to further expand the Company’s reach across North America as it continues to execute its strategy to consolidate, digitize and monetize over 100 independent urban publications and their audiences.

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