For the next two weeks, Digiday will examine “the modern publisher.” Each week we’ll sit down with a leader in the publishing industry who is rethinking its approach to digital media. The series is made possible through the sponsorship of QuadrantOne.
Ray Wert recently made an unlikely switch. He went from the editorial side of Gawker Media to sales. The former Jalopnik editor moved into the company’s newly created role of executive director of content. The idea: Wert’s team will work with Gawker sponsors to provide the guidance, tools and expertise needed to create content. Brands are not built for content creation and distribution, and as the Web continues to evolve, publishers are offering brands ways of developing content that its audiences will find engaging.
This opens the door for publishers to get out of the commoditized banner market. As Gawker CEO Nick Denton put it in announcing Wert’s role, “We expect that the banner ad business will be supplanted by our content services and content-driven commerce.”
Wert believes content provides more a meaningful engagement — and provides publishers the opportunity to much more value than simply carving out a section of pages for an ad message.
Watch the full interview below. Next week, Jim Bankoff, CEO of Vox Media, sits down to discuss why technology is vital to the success of the modern publisher.
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Media Briefing: The case for and against monthly and annual subscriptions in the battle for retention
There are no one-size-fits-all solutions for improving retention in a subscriptions business. While annual subscribers might stick around longer for some, other publishers will have better luck with monthly plans.
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Digiday+ Research: The economy will hit the media and marketing industries this year, but differently
The economy will plague both the media and marketing industries in 2023, but the hit will be uneven between publishers and agencies.
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Podcast ad buyers have yet to see a slowdown
Ad buyers have yet to see clients cut their podcast budgets – though the time of podcasts as the shiny new medium may be coming to an end.
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SponsoredWhy Best Buy Ads sees retail media as integral to its customer-centric purpose
Sponsored by Best Buy Ads Retail media networks have become critical for marketers, with retailers investing in ways that enable advertisers to engage consumers across online and offline channels. Given the wealth of retailers’ first-party customer data and measurement capabilities, retail media networks have become a natural fit for augmenting performance marketing programs. Alongside the […]
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The programmatic open marketplace is faltering, but publishers see a bright spot in private programmatic deals
Publishers are coming to terms with their open programmatic marketplace RPMs being 20-55% lower than they were this time last year, but the hope is that programmatic guaranteed deals will make up the deficit.
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Marketers weigh the cons of working with Google Ad Manager amid Justice Department’s new lawsuit
When is it time to back away?
