Digital publishing news for January 9, 2014
The New York Times relaunched its website yesterday, while also unveiling its sponsored posts. DigiDay’s Brian Morrissey writes, “The New York Times said it would take every care to label its first foray into native advertising, and it wasn’t kidding. The inaugural campaign, which is for Dell and launched today with the NYT’s redesigned site, carries several disclaimers. The ads for the Dell paid post are set off by a light blue background, smaller font than the other headlines, and a Dell logo. The post itself is also set to a blue background that boxes the content on the page. The top of the page includes the warning “paid for and posted by Dell.” (This is somewhat disingenuous since the Times technically does the posting, not the advertiser.) There are no less than two Dell logos at the top too. The Times is using a different font for these ads, in keeping with its practice in the newspaper for advertorial.” There should be very little doubt in the readers mind that these posts are paid.
[text_ad]
Mashable Closes Its First Round of Funding
Mashable announced today that it had closed on its first Series A round of funding. Bill Mickey from FOLIO magazine has all the details of the investment which was, “a $13.3 million Series A investment led by Updata Partners. Since starting in 2005, the company’s founder and CEO Pete Cashmore says Mashable has grown “without a dollar of funding,” until now. CNN’s Brian Stelter, who broke the story, points out that Mashable had toyed with the idea of being acquired in 2012—ironically and potentially to CNN—but instead forged ahead as an independent company.” Mashable will be using the investment to build up its infrastructure and invest in video.
Hearst’s Dr. Oz The Good Life Gets Sent To the Printers
The NY Post is reporting that Dr. Mehemet Oz’s new publication called Dr. Oz The Good Life has been shipped to the printers. Keith J. Kelly writes, “The first cover, when it lands on newsstands Feb. 4, will feature Dr. Mehmet Oz, sources said. By taking the cover himself, the health and fitness guru is following the trail blazed by other eponymous magazines — including those produced by Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray. Not clear is how many covers the good doctor will grace. Some celebrities, most famously Rosie O’Donnell, found it was a grind to appear on every issue of a magazine once it moves to monthly frequency.”
The new publication will have a fairly substantial launch Kelly adds “with 350,000 copies being distributed to newsstands and another 450,000 copies distributed free to subscribers of other Hearst titles.”
Refinery 29 Names Celebrity Editor-at-Large
Refinery 29, named the fastest growing media company on Inc’s 500 list, has named Drew Barrymore as its new editor-at-large. Fishbowl NY’s Chris O’Shea writes, “In her first post for the site, Barrymore penned a wordy piece about a breakfast sandwich. Specifically, an egg sandwich with tomato and cheese. It’s uh, quite an achievement. You can read Barrymore’s entire column by clicking through, but here’s our favorite sentence: “I cut a generous half-inch slice off the loaf and threw it in the toaster oven — yes, toaster ovens still rule my world!”
