The move comes at an interesting time for Vibrant. It is in the midst of moving its business from being primarily about in-text advertising, denoted with double-green underlines, into one that’s pushing an array of contextual ad products. Vibrant is running in-line contextual ads on photos, expanding its banner business and rolling out toolbars for publishers to create more inventory. The idea is to turn its in-page targeting engine, which matches keywords with relevant ads for in-text placements, into a broader ad business.
That’s probably the only way for Vibrant to move from being a nice, reliably profitable but relatively small company into the big leagues of ad tech companies slated for a public offering or a huge acquisition. It will also bring it far greater competition, with a raft of companies looking to monetize publisher photos and companies like Meebo offering toolbars.
Irvine was CEO of About for three years, joining The New York Times Co subsidiary from Digitas, where she was chief administrative officer. She stepped down from About in May as the unit struggled dealing with the aftereffects of Google’s algorithm change, which downgraded many About pages from Google’s search results.
More in Media
Kroger’s new CEO, a Walmart veteran, is focused on speed and execution
Foran joined Kroger in February after serving as CEO of Air New Zealand since 2020. Before that, he was president and CEO of Walmart U.S. for about six years.
In Graphic Detail: The real impact of creators at the World Cup
The 2026 World Cup buzz was all about creators; we look at the numbers breaking down their impact at the global tournament.
Media Briefing: Brand authority and trust are becoming publishers’ newest AI assets
Some publishers are betting that trusted brands and editorial authority are becoming their biggest competitive advantage with LLMs.