7 spots left to attend:

Join us Oct. 26-28 in Newport Beach for the Digiday Media Buying Summit

SECURE YOUR SEAT

The LinkedIn challenge: acting like a publisher

So many publishers today are focused on not just being publishers, but becoming “technology companies” or “platishers,” that is, websites that merge publishing with the user-generated content typically found on platforms like Twitter or Instagram.

But what’s it like when the opposite transition occurs? That is, how does a Silicon Valley tech company learn to be a publisher?

LinkedIn began that exact transition three years ago with the launch of LinkedIn Today, a section of its homepage that aggregated business news. It continued its evolution in 2012 when it began publishing original content through its “influencer program,” a collection 150 high-profile contributors that included President Obama and Richard Branson at launch. LinkedIn opened that blogger network to all users in February and in April announced an initiative to get brands to use LinkedIn as a native ad platform.

Alison Engel, LinkedIn’s senior director of global marketing, talked about the challenges of creating and growing a publishing arm within a platform company — and how it has balanced open publishing without diluting the quality of what is published.

The View From LinkedIn from Digiday on Vimeo.

More in Media

As creators increasingly move into Hollywood, deal terms can put their IP at risk

Advertising Week New York explored the business of creator-led programming across entertainment, and the problems arising within it

Apple’s Safari ad tech blocklist sends publishers back to IAB Tech Lab’s Trusted Server

What publishers once filed under someday now has a deadline, and Apple set it.

Media Briefing: As AI search shifts referrals, publishers revisit registration walls 

As referral traffic declines, publishers are rethinking registration walls as a way to turn anonymous visitors into valuable known users.