January 21, 2014
NEW YORK — a brand new York Times executive at Mobile Marketer’s Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2014 conference said that publishers should approach mobile as a wholly new medium that’s different from another marketing tactic.
During the “Content, Media and Publishing: Monetization and Advertising Challenges Loom Large” session, executives from USA Today, The hot York Times, Yahoo and Mindshare discussed how mobile is impacting the publishing world. The panel was moderated by Lauren Johnson, associate reporter at Mobile Marketer, Manhattan.
“We come to mobile like it truly is just another platform, we’ve seen radio visit television, we’ve seen print visit Web,” said Michael Zimbalist, senior vice chairman of ad products and research and development on the The big apple Times, The big apple. “I would form of challenge everyone to think about mobile as a platform shift of a further order, because we’ve never seen a platform shift that’s invaded people’s lives in one of these profound way.
“I think the default case of asserting ‘We’ve published for the internet, so we all know tips to publish for mobile’ results in a model that’s very Web-like,” he said.
“Can we avoid the channel-based thinking What are the habits which are forming, how within the day are they changing, after which try and build our own editorial products to check after which find ads to compare.”
Native ads
One of the more buzzworthy topics in publishing today is native advertising, and every of the session’s panelists had something to assert in regards to the new format.
The Manhattan Times recently added native advertising to their digital publication in a domain redesign (see story).
The key issue with native advertising is demarcating the content as sponsored and obviously making consumers’ conscious about the variations.
“We put a number of thought into brooding about the right way to do it in a technique that makes it completely clear that it’s a paid program they’re gazing, so you’ll see paid posts,” Mr. Zimbalist said. “It has a similar discovery tools that we make available throughout our editorial operation in addition.
“We think it’s a really big development for the digital advertising,” he said. “It’s how to let us offer something it really is unique and can’t be commoditized. We’re very bullish at the opportunity for native ads.”
Craig Etheridge, senior vp of digital and mobile ad sales at USA Today, McLean, VA, said that USA Today remains experimenting with native advertising.
He did share that native advertising is operating better for the publisher on tablet. Since consumers are inclined to spend more time reading on a tablet, native advertising can more easily fit into the experience.
“We don’t are looking to just put banner ads in, we wish to have ad units which are high-impact,” Mr. Etheridge said. “Over the past few years we’ve seen our mobile revenue represent 20 to twenty-five percent of revenue. We strive to create true integration across a brand.”
The panel
Programmatic buying
Another buzz word in mobile publishing is programmatic buying.
Craig Weinberg, director of mobile at Mindshare, Long island, is captivated with the prospects of programmatic for publishers.
“In a conceptual way, programmatic must be a present to a brand or agency,” he said. “It should allow much more time to contemplate big ideas and strategy because in a method we now have compartmentalized media buying to a machine that’s for the foremost part going with a purpose to optimize better than a someone.
“But we’re not there yet. Publishers are still very resistant.”
According to USA Today’s Mr. Etheridge, the publisher has embraced programmatic buying and has a separate team dedicated to the strategy. Programmatic permits more efficiency, but USA Today still incorporates more traditional buying and sponsorships.
While the hot York Times plays down the significance of programmatic buying as “only component to the combination,” a panelist from Yahoo said that the corporate is invested within the area.
Yahoo can be that specialize in catering to the original qualities of mobile because it applies to advertising.
“We’ve been fascinated with curated and summarized content because we all know the mobile user wants easy access,” said Patrick Albano, vp of social, mobile and innovation sales at Yahoo, Sunnyvale, CA. “That’s been really successful and we’ve seen that permeate to advertising.”
Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York