Nokia, the industry-leading handset manufacturer, has just announced that its mobile advertising network, launched back in February, during MWC 2008, has expanded, with new and important members from the European media joining in. Thus, Nokia Media Network now grew stronger and it's ready to reach even more consumers than it currently does (about 100 million).

Among the new partners that Nokia will work with from now onwards, we must mention:

– Agence France-Presse (AFP), the largest French press agency and the world's oldest news agency

– International Herald Tribune

– Telegraph Media Group, UK

– Trinity Mirror, UK

– El Mundo, Spain (via Unidad Editorial)

– El País, Spain (via Grupo Prisa)

– RTL Mobile Germany, subsidiary of the giant RTL Group

– Cuatro, the Spanish private TV channel

These come to join other big names, like Reuters, Sprint, Airtel, Cosmopolitan, Discovery and AccuWeather.

Talking about the expansion of Nokia Media Network, Tom Henriksson, head of Nokia Interactive Advertising, stated, "We are pleased to announce the addition of these top European publishers to the Nokia Media Network. The biggest brands in the world trust Nokia with their mobile advertising because of the quality of the publishers on our network. We will continue to fortify the Nokia Media Network with leading publishers like these so that we will continue to deliver the strongest response rates in the industry."

Otman Meriche, Agence France-Presse business development manager, also said, "Agence France-Presse has joined the Nokia Media Network, because Nokia has demonstrated leadership in building a global mobile advertising service. Our advertisers are looking for brand-safe, high performance media, and Nokia's understanding of the mobile channel is unrivaled."

The Nokia Media Network was created to give advertisers greater freedom when it comes to mobile ads. The network leverages on campaigns made via various operators, blue-chip mobile publishers and Nokia's own services (like MOSH and Widsets).