Flummoxed by the 'Broken' Ad-Supported Publishing Model, Medium Slashes Staff

Medium, the online publishing company started by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, is changing its business model and cutting a third of its staff.The company, which has raised $132 million in venture capital from investors including Greylock Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, relied on the same model as other media companies to make money: placing ads on articles. In a blog post Wednesday, Mr. Williams called that model "broken," because it serves the goals of corporations and not the readers of content."We are shifting our resources and attention to defining a new model for writers and creators to be rewarded, based on the value they're creating for people," Mr. Williams wrote. "And toward building a transformational product for curious humans who want to get smarter about the world every day." Continue reading at AdAge.com Continue reading at 'Advertising Age'

[ Advertising Age | 2017-01-05 00:00:00 UTC ]

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‘Facebook is everything to us’: How Little Things grew to 50 million users in under three years

Feel-good publisher Little Things has built an audience of 50 million users a month thanks to Facebook -- and it's profitable. CEO Joe Speiser joined the Digiday Podcast to discuss how the publisher grew out of its roots as a pet-food retailer, why he's not too worried about being overly reliant... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Media Websites Battle Faltering Ad Revenue and Traffic

Changes in technology like ad blocking, and the dominance of platforms like Facebook leave many publishers unsure of how they will make money. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2016-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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What publishers want Snapchat to fix about Discover

Talk to anyone, and it's clear that the the mostly young Snapchat audience is less enthusiastic about Discover than the media companies. Traffic to Discover is a fraction of the regular user activity that reaches more than 100 million people a day. The main focus of the app will always be the... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers Have to Pay Up to Track Their Audiences on Distributed Platforms

Publishers are increasingly coming around to the idea of a distributed future. They're re-allocating resources to build teams that produce content for specific social platforms, and they're giving away articles on platforms like Apple News, Facebook and Flipboard, hoping to make money by selling... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2016-03-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tasting Table is looking beyond Facebook to make money off video

Like other publishers, Tasting Table is growing on Facebook, where it did 13.6 million views in January. But while Facebook might offer reach, it doesn’t yet present a revenue opportunity, which is why the company is also focusing on distributing content on its own website and new Apple TV app.... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Bauer Media ditched its sales team and went all programmatic

The publishing world has long seen programmatic as the realm of cheap, unsold inventory with far less revenue potential than what's sold through direct channels. But times are changing. Bauer Xcel Media, the U.S. arm the European magazine company, has shuttered its direct sales team in favor of... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kids These Days: They Might Just Pay for Digital Content

Media consumers who prefer native digital content now make up nearly half the audience for entertainment in developed markets and more than a third of the audience for publishing and online services. In developing markets, those shares are slightly lower but trending in the same direction, Bain... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2015-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new Irish literary boom: the post-crash stars of fiction

Dynamic, radical, often female … Irish fiction is flourishing. Gone is the conservative writing – all nostalgia and sexual repression – of the Celtic Tiger years. The writers of the new wave are original and bold“Money kills the imagination,” says the narrator of Claire Kilroy’s 2012 novel The... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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To compete with Facebook and Google, publishers step up their ad-targeting game

Traditional publishers, tired of competing with Facebook and Google for digital ad dollars, are taking steps to get more personal with their advertising. Among the big topics discussed during Advertising Week was how media companies like News Corp and Condé Nast are getting into the ad tech... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomberg’s Justin Smith isn’t all-in on platforms

Facebook, Apple and other platforms are wooing publishers to distribute their articles directly in their ecosystems, and after some reluctance, publishers are clamoring to get on board. But one major publisher is sounding the warning cry: Bloomberg Media's Justin Smith said on an Advertising... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-10-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Medium Raises $57 Million for the ‘Best Stories and Ideas on the Internet’

Medium, the publishing platform hatched by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, has raised $57 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz.   It’s the three-year-old company’s second funding round, and people familiar with Medi ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2015-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hearst Invests $21 Million in Pop-Culture Network Complex Media

Hearst has made another bet on an emerging pop-culture brand, investing $21 million in Complex Media, a digital-media company that operates websites devoted to music, fashion, food and movies.Hearst, the publisher of Cosmopolitan and Esquire magazines, last year acquired a 25% stake in... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2015-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why publishers warily embrace platforms: ‘They need you and you need them’

As publishers increasingly post their content directly to social networks, many media companies are losing control of the distribution of their own product. Still, some publishers say that the rise of these platforms as distribution channels -- from Facebook's Instant Articles to Snapchat's... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tribune expands its Web-syndication business to video

Tribune Content Agency, a content “clearinghouse” for Tribune Publishing, has launched a new video-syndication network, which will offer its publishing partners more than 1,000 new videos per day from media companies like Reuters, AP, Bloomberg, the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times. The network,... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Cote denies class certification in Authors Solutions case

A lawsuit accusing Author Solutions of seeking to make money from authors, rather than for authors, has been denied class certification by a judge in the US. New York-based law firm Giskan Solotaroff Anderson & Stewart filed a class action lawsuit against Author Solutions in New York in... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook steps up competition with YouTube with ad-supported videos

Social network already has 4bn views a day of its native clips, but helping their creators to make money is its next ambitionVideos uploaded directly to Facebook are watched more than 4bn times a day according to the social network. Now it wants their uploaders to be able to make money from... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Adland Vet Mitchell Caplan Joins IBT Media as First CMO

IBT Media, the company perhaps best known for buying and reviving Newsweek, hired Mitchell Caplan, the chief marketing officer at creative agency Olson, as its first CMO, the company announced today.The addition of Mr. Caplan marks the latest step forward for this digital publisher, which is... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2015-06-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kik joins Facebook in hunt for more publisher, brand deals

In the latest land grab for consumers’ time on platforms, Kik is stepping up efforts to court brands and media companies. The messaging app popular with millennials hired ad vet Josh Jacobs to head a new division, Kik Services, with an eye to adding games and commerce services and expand... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2015-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook vs. YouTube: A Look at the NFL's Split Programming Strategy

Facebook is trying to usurp YouTube as the go-to destination for distributing and watching videos online, and a lot of brands, publishers and other content creators are trying to figure out which videos to put where.The social network has demonstrated an ability to drive more video views and in... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2015-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New Mobile Ads Recommend Videos Based on the News You're Reading

Nailing mobile video is a major goal for marketers this year, as exemplified at this week's Digital Content NewFronts presentations. And as Snapchat and Facebook lure advertising dollars away from TV with new video options, smaller ad companies are following suit. A GIF showing the new video... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2015-04-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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