At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Nokia today announced the launch of the global Nokia Media Network, a premium advertising network including over 70 leading publisher and operators as well as Nokia media properties.

Some of the companies involved include AccuWeather, Discovery, Hearst, Reuters, and Sprint—all are joining with Nokia to form what the handset vendor bills as the "first global mobile ad network of top tier publishers." Nokia claims that their Nokia Media Network is already yielding click-through rates averaging 10% in certain channels.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Hearst said that this deal will make Hearst the largest US magazine publisher in the U.S. for mobile content. Currently, they have nine mobile sites and nine text clubs, with a total of 4 million mobile page views per month across all four major carriers. The spokesperson said that this deal "heralds the first time a content publisher is able to serve ads across off-deck and on-deck using the same ad serving partner."

Nokia Launches Premier Mobile Advertising Network [Nokia at MWC]