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Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo, as the new service is known, presents publishers with an alternative to conventional subscriptions, which, if widely adopted, could open up a new model based on free, ad-supported publishing, say analysts.

The service allows publishers to generate revenue by including text-based ads linked to the specific content of an Adobe PDF page. The advertisements can only run in a side panel separated from the publication's actual content.

"People want content for free," says Matt Swain, an analyst at market research firm at InfoTrends, who has been briefed by the companies on their plans. "The question is how do I reach consumers without charging them a subscription fee?" he says.

The service is set to begin public testing. An earlier private test included technology and professional publishers IDG InfoWorld, Wired, Pearson's Education unit, Meredith and Reed Elsevier NV.

The free service requires no special software and is open to US publishers of English language content. The public test is expected to run several months, say officials.

Access to advertisers

Publishers who join Yahoo's online

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advertising network get access to the Internet company's extensive network of advertisers based on the subject matter of their content.

"This is powerful up and down the spectrum of publishers," says Todd Teresi, senior vice president of the Yahoo Publisher Network.

Advertisers gain a distribution channel that can reach highly specific audiences based on their reading interests while allowing them to track how specific ads perform. The approach is akin to how web-based, pay-per-click ads now work.

Publishers who rely on Yahoo for corporate brand or web search advertising will have the option of delivering ads in PDF-based publications as well, he says.

"From an advertiser point of view this looks like an extension of our existing marketplace," Teresi says.

For consumers, the text-based ads are displayed in a panel adjacent to the published content with no moving or flashing elements so that they do not distract the reader as some web advertising is known to do.

Each time the PDF content is viewed, targeted ads are dynamically matched by Yahoo to the content of the document. The publisher receives anonymised reports about which ads ran alongside which published content.

Publishers who register for the service simply need to upload their Adobe PDF-ready materials to that they can be ad-enabled. The content owner then distributes the PDF in any of a variety of ways, including over e-mail or via the web.

An Adobe executive said the project remained in an experimental stage, part of a "long-term market evolution."

The deal with Adobe is the latest move by Yahoo to expand the reach of its advertising beyond Yahoo-owned sites. Since last year, Yahoo has signed partnership deals to supply online ads to online auctioneer eBay, cable television giant Comcast, a consortium of US newspaper groups and others.