Forbes Makes Peace with Audience Buying

February 22, 2011 • 2 min read • By Brian Morrissey

Even the most hard-line publishers appear ready to make peace with the world of ad exchanges. Forbes Media is the latest brand-name publisher to craft a private exchange in the hopes of giving advertisers a way to efficiently buy audiences while not completely commoditizing its inventory.

Forbes is calling its Forbes Media Extension a “brand-side platform,” in nod to the demand-sides platforms that are synonymous with advertisers mining audiences via exchanges. Forbes is using the platform to allow the buy side to access audience segments on Forbes sites and partners in its network of related third-party sites.

In a statement, Kevin Gentzel, chief revenue officer of Forbes Media, said FMX acknowledges the desire by advertisers to buy audiences at scale while adding in the imprimatur of a “trusted environment” endorsed by Forbes.

Forbes was a leader in the anti-ad network movement of two years ago, swearing off them entirely — and blaming ad networks for declining CPMs at high-end publishers. Then Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller regularly critiqued the network craze for turning online media into “pork bellies,” as Wenda Harris Millard famously described it.

Forbes is one of a handful of top-line publishers to try to craft audience networks with protections. The Weather Channel, CBS Interactive and NBC Universal have all set up private exchanges, which agency trading desks can access to buy segments at prices higher than the publishers would get on the broad ad exchanges.

Forrester Research has pegged private exchanges as an important development to improve the quality of inventory available via so-called programmatic buying. The thought is this will move audience-based, automated ad buying from the near-exclusive preserve of direct response and gain interest from higher-end brands.

Forbes is launching with six audience segments: business and finance; small business; technology professionals; in-market users; wealth and personal finance; and wealth and lifestyle.

https://digiday.com/?p=628

Digiday Top Stories

Navigating Economic Instability
In graphic detail: Publishers’ full year 2022 earnings
Looking back at 2022, the hits to publishers' revenue were partially staunched, but by the end of the year nearly all areas of the business felt the impact of the economic downturn.
Equality and Opportunity
‘It has to be built in’: How agencies strive to advance their diversity goals
There often is no blueprint for diversity in the corporate world, and many initiatives at media agencies have been works in progress over the last few years.
Navigating Economic Instability
Publishers tout generative AI opportunities to save and make money amid rough media market
Generative AI technology will be an area of focus for some media companies this year as they work to cut costs and find new revenue opportunities amid a tough media market.
Sponsored
Brands are optimizing video production to drive user acquisition
Sponsored by QuickFrame by MNTN With brands increasingly investing in video ads on social media, marketers are enhancing their video production capabilities to unlock growth on Facebook and Instagram. Especially urgent in an uncertain economic climate, brands must minimize production costs while creating a high enough volume of social media videos to identify the creative […]
Member Exclusive
Digiday+ Research: Video ads are a growing business for publishers large and small
Video advertising's potential rings most true among small publishers, while data points to video advertising already reaching its potential among large publishers — but also not, at the same time.
Beyond Ads
How The Guardian’s Luis Romero is selling the legacy U.K. publication in the U.S.
The Guardian U.S.'s Luis Romero is working to grow the U.K.-based publishers' ad business in North America while combating the pervasive brand safety problem facing all news publishers.