Save 50% on a 3-month Digiday+ membership. Ends Dec 5.
There’s something of a revolt in the digital media world against the tyranny of the banner ad. Platforms like Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter aren’t running standard display ads. New-style publishers like Buzzfeed don’t like them. At Gawker, CEO Nick Denton wants to get out of the business of selling primarily display ad impressions.
In a memo he sent to his staff today, Denton laid out how Gawker will increasingly work with its advertisers directly to create content. In an unusual move, Gawker is transferring Ray Wert, the editor-in-chief of Gawker automobile site Jalopnik, to the sales department to lead content creation. It is a move Denton recently hinted at when he told GigaOm he could see Gawker offering “publishing services” to its advertisers.
“We all know the conventional wisdom: the days of the banner advertisement are numbered,” Denton wrote in an email to Gawker staff. “In two years, our primary offering to marketers will be our discussion platform.”
Gawker recently revamped its commenting system in a way that Denton hopes will improve the quality of conversation on the site. He also hopes to find ways for advertisers to participate, noting in an email that “in a couple of years I could see “discussion management” being more important than traditional online advertising.”
Gawker already offers sponsored posts and other custom content programs to advertisers. This will be expanded, Denton said, and Wert’s unit “will recruit and identify a client’s spokespeople and advocates, advise them on Web etiquette and language, and help make their most persuasive case.”
The trend against display advertising will run into many obstacles. One of the biggest is the fact that display advertising, for all its faults, is a huge business. It is also a highly commoditized business, thanks to the influx of technology, that shows few signs of heading in the opposite direction.
For publishers like Gawker, that means looking elsewhere for ways to make money. Denton noted to his staff that affiliate marketing fees from Amazon purchases via links on Gawker gadget blog Gizmodo topped $70,000 in December. It’s an area he hopes to expand.
“We expect that the banner ad business will be supplanted by our content services and content-driven commerce,” he said.
More in Media
‘The Big Bang has happened’: Reach gets proactive on AI-era referrals, starting with subscriptions
This week, the publisher of national U.K. titles Daily Mirror, Daily Express and Daily Star, is rolling out its first paid digital subscriptions – a big departure from the free, ad-funded model it’s had throughout its 120-year history.
Arena Group, BuzzFeed, USA Today Co, Vox Media join RSL’s AI content licensing efforts
Arena Group, BuzzFeed, USA Today Co and Vox Media are participating in the RSL Collective’s efforts to license content to AI companies.
Marketers move to bring transparency to creator and influencer fees
What was once a direct handoff now threads through a growing constellation of agencies, platforms, networks, ad tech vendors and assorted brokers, each taking something before the creator gets paid.