Join us Dec. 1-3 in Nashville for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit
The New York Times used to crow about the performance of its About unit, which it bought for $410 million in 2005. Not so much anymore. PaidContent has the news that About is reorganizing its operations. Business Insider claimed it is laying off its editorial team, which is apparently not the case. NYT brought in executive Martin Niesenholtz to run About, which is now regularly tagged as “troubled,” replacing Cella Irvine. The downfall of About was speeded by Google’s Panda algorithm update that hit so-called content farms hard. It’s hard to see a future where the NYT is able to turn around About, considering it is a legacy business built on search optimization at a time when Google is hellbent of fighting the spam that clogs its results.
More in Media
People Inc. is building custom APIs to make its journalism easier for AI agents to use
People Inc. is moving toward custom APIs for AI systems, Forbes has adopted Markdown for agents, while the FT, Daily Mail are considering how agents could reach content for subscribers.
Giggly Squad’s SiriusXM deal signals a shift from podcast networks to creator ecosystems
The Giggly Squad deal shows podcasts have turned another corner. Video, short-form, IRL shows…where does the podcast go from here?
The Times of London is gearing up to test ‘macro payments’
The Times has a plan for readers who don’t want to subscribe.