Microsoft signed a deal to be the exclusive third-party provider of contextual and paid search advertising for the Wall Street Journal Digital Network (WSJDN), which includes Barrons and marketWatch as well as WSJ.com.

WSJDN is a leading provider of business and financial information news and analysis on sites such as WSJ.com, Barrons.com, MarketWatch.com, allthingsD.com and more. WSJDN reaches a savvy worldwide audience of over 20 million unique users and serves over 330 million page views per month on its sites specific to the highly sought-after financial services audience for advertisers. In addition to being a traffic leader in the Business & Finance verticals, the WSJDN reaches a highly qualified audience:

• A larger concentration of C-level Executives than any other original financial news sites
• A higher concentration of affluent males than any online network
• More Business Decision Makers and Technology Decision Makers than any other online publisher of original financial news
• A high number of active investors, both institutional/professional and self-directed
• 983,000 WSJ.com subscribers
• 723,000 C-levels
• Average age: 48 years
• 67% male

In addition to having these exlusive rights with WSJ Digital Network, Microsoft recently signed deals with other mig media companies such as Viacom, Digg, & Facebook.

I believe this is a very smart strategy by Microsoft as they are strengthening their online position with specific demographic properties. In addition, owning the advertising spaces on WSJDN and others is smart because although they don’t own the content on these sites, they can control the protential branding opportunities on them.