Just as the Mad Men of the 50′s and 60′s tapped into consumer desires and emotions for a new school of advertising, modern companies like Instagram and Pinterest will need a similar revolution in how we think about ads if they want to make money. Read more at paidContent »
There are plenty of reasons why the announced Yahoo Tumblr deal makes sense for those companies. But Marissa Mayer might have seen a much greater payoff from acquiring Pinterest instead. Here’s why. Read more »
The NYT’s multimedia project Snow Fall was a huge success, attracting big audiences and lots of plaudits. But the paper can do even better — it can build a new business from this type of project, and change the definition of journalism in the new century. Read more »
“Native advertising” is on the lips of everyone in publishing and advertising these days. Blogger and skeptic Felix Salmon asked executives from BuzzFeed and Forbes what it really means. Read more at paidContent »
There’s been plenty of focus on how publishers are catering to advertisers by producing “native” advertising, including sponsored content — but a much bigger trend is brands and advertisers that are becoming publishers themselves. Read more at paidContent »
There is a growing battle between content engines — which suggest stories for you to “read next” — over access to publishers’ pages. The outcome will matter for publishers, readers and the future of “native advertising.” Read more at paidContent »
A research firm has revised its 2014 revenue predictions for Twitter to nearly $1 billion. The upwards revision partly reflects Twitter’s ability to solve the mobile marketing puzzle. Read more »
Can America’s viral site BuzzFeed succeed in a country where sensationalist journalism already thrives? We’ll soon find out. Read more at paidContent »
The Pew Center’s latest report on the state of the media shows the financial woes affecting the traditional news business continue, and this is having an effect on consumers — but there are a few bright spots as well. Read more at paidContent »
WordPress is going to curate more content and may focus on longform writing and even native advertising, CEO Matt Mullenweg said in a panel at SXSW Saturday. Read more at paidContent »
On Tuesday, the Washington Post stepped into the sponsored content fray with a new platform, BrandConnect, that lets marketers create content and publishes it on the newspaper’s homepage. Read more at paidContent »
One of the biggest trends in media at the moment is “sponsored content” or what some call “native advertising.” But is it the savior of online media, or just another mirage in the advertising desert? Read more at paidContent »
The venerable Atlantic is being made the poster child for what happens when native advertising goes wrong. An ad industry event in New York raised the question of whether the Atlantic deserves this blame when many other sites engage in similar practices. Read more at paidContent »
Native advertising, brand journalism — whatever you call it, the current ad-driven content boom provides a lot of opportunity. But for it to work, journalists and publishers need to think about their brand as much as the advertiser does. Read more at paidContent »
Google has reiterated a warning to publishers that its ban on links that are designed to enhance a site’s PageRank applies not just to paid links but to sponsored content and advertorial as well. Read more at paidContent »
Interest may be weakening in consumer social media businesses. But social technologies are working their way deeper into enterprise computing, and social media is playing a bigger role across advertising and marketing sectors. Read more »
The Atlantic caused a furore this week with a piece of sponsored content about the Church of Scientology, which raised a host of questions about the risks of “native advertising” — which many see as the future of online media. Read more at paidContent »
The comments you leave on a website — are they garbage or a gold mine? Disqus says comments are more popular than you might think and has big plans to make money off them. Read more at paidContent »
BuzzFeed has been criticized for taking images from other sites such as Reddit without giving credit to the original creator — something that the web’s “remix culture” is making more and more difficult. But BuzzFeed’s desire to create sponsored content makes it more important than ever. Read more at paidContent »
Henry Blodget of Business Insider has opened up about his site’s growth and other metrics, but for someone who is promoting transparency, he hasn’t told us the most important things we need to know in order to tell whether BI is successful or not. Read more at paidContent »
The Associated Press is running sponsored tweets as part of a deal with Samsung during the Consumer Electronics Show. While this is allowed under Twitter’s rules, it also clearly threatens the network’s future as an advertising medium. How long will it allow this to continue? Read more at paidContent »
BuzzFeed has had a very good year after earning heaps of funding and expanding its serious news footprint from New York to Washington. Now, the viral site wants a piece of entertainment reporting. Read more at paidContent »
It’s fashionable to declare that display advertising is done for — but ESPN and others are showing that this is just the case for bad display ads. New creative opportunities could give the display market a second act. But will publishers invest in them? Read more at paidContent »
BuzzFeed has built the site from just a repository for animated cat GIFs into a substantial media entity, and just raised a new round of financing — and Tumblr also has a fairly deep war-chest and dreams of expansion. And both are aiming at the same targets. Read more at paidContent »
Instagram responded to user complaints over the update to its privacy policy on Monday. It explained that it does not intend to sell user photos, and that users can still set their photos to private to maintain privacy controls. Read more »
Native advertising — like a brand’s Tumblr blog or a sponsored tweet — is generating a lot of hype. A new survey says ad people are ready to take it on en masse, but some wonder if it can scale or if it’s just a buzzword. Read more at paidContent »
Display ads such as “lose your belly” and “professors hate him” are discrediting the familiar model of online advertising which is based on slapping banner ads on websites. Now, one company has a solution to keep the same ad format — but replace the crummy content. Read more at paidContent »
Despite that famous 1996 declaration, many publishers have struggled to find effective consumer offerings online. But now a perfect storm of new models and prospects gives renewed confidence for many. Read more at paidContent »
More and more publications are turning to “native advertising” as the solution to declining display ad dollars and readers’ ongoing switch to mobile. Will we soon see an advertiser like Tesla paying to include a story in the New York Times? Read more at paidContent »
Tumblr is enjoying explosive traffic growth and jaw-dropping valuations. But so did a similar community site, GeoCities, a decade ago before it quickly imploded. Investor Fred Wilson says this time is different. Read more »
