Who Gets the Highest Ad Rates Online?

With All the Talk of CPMs Going to Zero, Here's a Survey of Who's Commanding Top Dollar

by Michael Learmonth
Published: December 21, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Online ad rates, we're told, are on an express train to zero, helped along by gagillions of impressions generated by Facebook, Twitter and its ilk, and the networks, exchanges and targeting technologies that allow advertisers to buy audience as a commodity, without dealing with individual sites at all.

And while the recession has put another hit on CPMs -- the term ad buyers and sellers use as shorthand for the cost for 1,000 impressions -- across the web, some sites can still pimp fat ad rates either by virtue of their reach, specialized audience or unique environment.

Who's getting the best ad rates on the web today? The slideshow that follows, culled from agency buyers and media sellers, is far from scientific, but gives a good sense of who can still charge bank and why.

Got some other fat CPM candidates? Leave them in the comments section.

See slide show here: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=141153