Digital publishing news for June 26th, 2013
Google recently let publishers know that they’ll be scrutinizing advertorial content more closely in the future. Publishers need to make it abundantly clear to readers as to which pieces of content are sponsored. So how are other publishers handling this?
Digiday investigated how four digital publishers are disclosing sponsored content to their readers. One publisher they looked at was MIT Technology Review. “Technology Review has a devoted URL to its sponsored content guidelines and in clear language explains that material from advertisers is always unambiguously labeled, and the sponsor is always clearly identified,” writes Digiday.
Advertorial content at The Atlantic goes through the marketing department, not the editorial department and is branded with the following statement: “This Content is made possible by our Sponsor; it is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Atlantic’s editorial staff.” The Huffington Post has an entire “beat” dedicated to sponsored content … see how they do it.
A Peek at Businessweek’s iPad Advertising
AdAge has delivered us a behind the scenes look at Bloomberg Businessweek‘s iPad advertising structure and sales. Publisher Hugh Wiley says, they “do not discount its mobile or iPad ads, because there is limited inventory and high demand.” They also do not bundle. If they want ads in print and on the iPad, they pay separately.
“Bloomberg Businessweek offers advertisers several ways to appear on its iPad and iPhone app,” writes Michael Sebastian of Advertising Age. “The cost of a quarterly sponsorship — which includes a full-page ad, a ‘brought to you by’ logo and various banner ads — is $85,000. IPad advertisers are given certain performance metrics on their ads, such as time spent and content downloads. Microsoft Dynamics and Credit Suisse USA are among the brands to sponsor sections. The magazine plans to offer monthly sponsorships starting in the third quarter of this year.”
“IPad is a big revenue driver for us,” said Wiley.
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A Bad Week for Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble is getting out of the tablet manufacturing business reports Book Business: “The company plans to significantly reduce losses in the Nook segment by limiting risks associated with manufacturing.” You can also read about how Nook sales are down 16% for the year on Media Bistro.
Barnes & Nobles will be seeking to build partnerships with hardware manufactures to create co-branded tablets (think “Samsung Nook”) for the company. No partnerships have been announced at this time.
People Are Snack Reading, Not Read Reading
Mobiles Republic released a new study & supporting infographic showing how users of their News Republic app are consuming information.
According to the study they found that readers were “news snacking” via mobile devices multiple times a day, reporting that “75 percent of readers with smartphones and 70 percent with tablets check the news more than once a day.” Gilles Raymond, CEO of Mobiles Republic stated that he thinks news organizations “must have multiple streams of mobile news distribution in order to reach the mobile audiences and continue to thrive.”
Leaving the Times For Mashable
The New York Times VP of advertising, Seth Rogin, is leaving the company to become the newly created chief revenue officer at Mashable. Media Bistro reports that his appointment is effectively immediately. Rogin had been with The New York Times for 13 years. Talk about a print to web transition!
