Verizon unloads Tumblr in deal with WordPress owner

Verizon has announced the sale of Tumblr, the fallen online community left over from the Yahoo acquisition, to the owner of WordPress, the website publishing company. On Monday, Verizon Media said it was unloading Tumblr, but did not disclose the terms of the deal. Axios reported the sale was less than $20 million. Automattic, the owner of WordPress, is expected to keep on most of the 200 employees at Tumblr, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the sale. Tumblr and its new owner share similar roles in the world of online publishing, developing tools that make it easy for businesses and bloggers to power their websites. Tumblr claims to host 475 million self-published blogs. “Automattic was impressed with the Tumblr team’s ability to deliver a seamless publishing and sharing experience for users,” Verizon wrote in its announcement of the sale. With this deal, Verizon is unloading a property that does not quite fit its content strategy, and it will no longer have any headaches from the site, which included a child porn problem that was uncovered last year. Tumblr has since adopted a zero-porn policy after the revelations that users were sharing offensive and sometimes illegal images.   The loss of the free expression, however, did alienate some hardcore users of the platform. Automattic is expected to maintain the porn ban. Founded in 2007, Tumblr was once a shooting star in the startup world, often mentioned in the same category as Twitter and... Continue reading at 'Advertising Age'

[ Advertising Age | 2019-08-12 22:12:36 UTC ]

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The state of brand suitability

According to new State of the Industry research from Integral Ad Science and Digiday, brand suitability — a term describing a marketer’s desired targeting parameters, including subjective variables like location and demographics — is emerging as a top concern for digital media pros. The post... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-10-17 02:26:20 UTC ]
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How Digital Media Could Help Decide the 2020 Election Winner

Digital media is poised for a major role in the 2020 election season. While we all know that elections are decided based on numerous factors, no one can deny that messages conveyed to would-be voters via media (whether it's paid, earned or owned) plays a major role in swaying the minds of the... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2019-10-16 15:10:26 UTC ]
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Bookstore Sales Fell 10.3% in August

Bookstore sales tumbled 10.3% in August compared to August 2018, according to preliminary figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The double digit decline suggests that college students are cutting their purchases of print materials in favor of greater use of digital content. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-10-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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My Frankfurt Book Fair... with Laura Ricchetti

Pan Macmillan’s international sales star—and the Shooting Star among this year’s The Bookseller Rising Stars tranche—on her love for the Messe, learning from Ms Martini, and not drinking too many martinis... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-15 16:21:40 UTC ]
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This week's agency moves, hires, and partnerships: October 14, 2019

Serviceplan Group Middle East hired Akhilesh Bagri as executive creative director. Previously, he held positions at BBDO, JWT, Leo Burnett and FP7 on brands including HSBC, Coca-Cola, Mastercard, Emirates Airlines, HSBC, Sony, PepsiCo, Nestle and Mars. Gabriel Guedelha joins The Via Agency as... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-14 19:04:03 UTC ]
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Media Mergers Aren’t New. So Why Are Publishers Consolidating Now?

Perhaps it was promising, years ago, to see the media industry booming thanks to investments by venture capital-backed funders and large media conglomerates hoping to cash in early on promising new digital media titles. But now, it's the time in the industry's life cycle for those same flashy... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2019-10-14 15:22:42 UTC ]
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Marketers feel growing pains as in-house agencies become a necessity

Going in-house isn't a question of when or if for major marketers today but rather what they will take in-house. Doing so gives them more control as well as the ability to keep up with the growing needs of digital content today. The post Marketers feel growing pains as in-house agencies become... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-10-11 04:01:45 UTC ]
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Adapt or fail: The shifting nature and evolution of customer identity

In the past, the customer journey was thought to be, or at least accepted as, primarily linear — meaning customers followed a predictable path to purchase over and over.  For example, an individual might see a commercial, research the product online and head into the store to purchase it. It... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-10 14:00:00 UTC ]
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Digital media companies consolidating should boost their forays into Hollywood

The recent media mergers could help the combined companies to secure more production deals with streaming services. The post Digital media companies consolidating should boost their forays into Hollywood appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-10-09 04:01:45 UTC ]
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‘It can be demotivating’: Digital media’s all-stock deals are the new normal

With banks more reluctant to lend, venture capitalists aren't interested in buying digital media companies that aren't growing quickly. The post ‘It can be demotivating’: Digital media’s all-stock deals are the new normal appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-10-09 04:01:17 UTC ]
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Media Mergers Highlight Arbitrary Private Valuations

A slew of digital media acquisitions over the past few weeks shows how unreliable private valuations can be. The only Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2019-10-08 16:38:01 UTC ]
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NBA is in a no-win situation as protest tweet sparks China furor

The NBA finds itself caught between two cultures, after a tweet about Hong Kong protests sparked criticism from China that threatens the U.S. basketball league’s expansion efforts in its most important international market. The controversy erupted after Daryl Morey, general manager of the... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-07 16:50:17 UTC ]
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TikTok users are surprised to find themselves in ads for the app

Elijah Jay is wants nternet stardom, almost anywhere he can get it, just not as a TikTok salesman. But that’s exactly what he became when the social media company used one of his videos in an ad that ran on Snapchat. Jay's video, in which he performs a balloon-swallowing stunt, has been seen by... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-07 09:00:00 UTC ]
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Agency Brief: get into the weeds of the latest wins, hires and acquisitions

Judging by the dozens of cannabis pitches I receive weekly, weed—which is increasingly gaining recreational legal status across the U.S., despite the hundreds of thousands of people who continue to be arrested for it every year—is ripe for advertising opportunities. Here’s one standout cannabis... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-04 20:07:05 UTC ]
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Bleacher Report now has three hit animation series

Sports coverage is such a saturated area that digital media publishers like Bleacher Report must constantly hunt new ways to drive new audiences, while sustaining existing ones. Making the series a parody has gone down well with fans, and helped it differentiate. The post Bleacher Report now... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-10-04 04:00:27 UTC ]
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Upheaval at Sports Illustrated, Mergers in Digital Media | News & Notes

A staff uprising at Sports Illustrated... Following Tuesday's New York Post report that editor-in-chief Chris Stone is exiting Sports Illustrated after 27 years with the magazine, The Wall Street Journal added late Wednesday evening that the brand's new operator, TheMaven Inc., is planning to... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2019-10-03 20:41:59 UTC ]
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What recession? Holiday sales expected to rise amid boost in ad spend

Shoppers appear unfazed by a potential recession, tariff uncertainty and an impeachment inquiry in Washington. The National Retail Federation, which released its annual holiday sales forecast Thursday, says retail sales will increase between 3.8 percent and 4.2 percent during the last two months... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-03 19:49:51 UTC ]
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ANA’s annual meeting begins with major focus on multicultural marketing

For the past several years, Association of National Advertisers CEO Bob Liodice has kicked off the group’s largest conference of the year by ticking off a laundry list of issues plaguing the industry, including the opaque digital media supply chain, ad fraud and the ANA’s long-running fight with... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-03 15:40:12 UTC ]
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Vice Media to acquire Refinery29 in drive for female audiences

Vice Media Inc., the youth-oriented media company, agreed to acquire the online publisher Refinery29, seeking to reignite growth by reaching a young female audience. The deal marks the biggest move yet by Vice Chief Executive Officer Nancy Dubuc, who has been trying to revive the once... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-10-02 19:51:02 UTC ]
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MediaMath launches new platform to 'clean up' digital media supply chain

Partners on the initiative include the Rubicon Project, Telaria, Acoustic, Akamai, Business Insider, Crackle Plus, Havas Media, IBM Watson, Inscape/Vizio, IRIS.TV, News Corp, Octopus Interactive, Oracle Data Cloud, Publishers Clearing House and White Ops. Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-10-02 16:44:44 UTC ]
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