Robert Andrews

In the last couple of years, the idea of “cards” has gained steam for presenting online information. Google’s Material Design aesthetic depends on cards, Facebook feed items are shown as cards. And now Taboola, one of the big companies powering recommended content at the bottom of publishers’ news articles, is going with cards, too. On Wednesday, Taboola […]

LAS VEGAS — Around the TV industry, advertising executives are responding to growing consumer disaffection for ads, by reducing ad load and rejigging the duration of ads served in to commercial breaks. But what if machines did it for them? That’s a future Scott Braley sees emerging. Speaking on a Beet.TV panel, the Ooyala ad platforms GM […]

In the last few years, Business Insider has risen to be one of the most popular business news websites on the planet – but selling that audience to advertisers doesn’t happen solely on that website. In this video interview with Beet.TV, Business Insider chief revenue officer Peter Spande says the publisher is now helping brands make BI-style […]

LAS VEGAS — When Fox, Turner and Viacom unveiled a new tool to help agencies buy ads across their new advanced TV offerings in April, it was described as “historical“. But one of the partners says the move was just baby steps in what will become a much more full-fledged affair. OpenAP is a way of introducing […]

News Corp’s new global technology chief wants to learn from big tech platforms, and to keep his brands publishing through social sites – but only if the deal stacks up. This month, he was confirmed in the role of chief technology officer after Paul Cheesbrough moved along to the same role at sister company 21st Century […]

LAS VEGAS — The next wave of focus in computing is machine learning and artificial intelligence – and advertising will be a beneficiary. Big computing providers like IBM and Microsoft already have significant cognitive services suites, available to developers through APIs, to perform tasks like text analysis. But what if those services could also see […]

LAS VEGAS — On the spectrum of new-wave TV ad-targeting techniques, many executives are dreaming a degree of targeting precision that can customise ad delivery for individual TV viewers. That may be an intriguing possibility. Indeed, on many over-the-top devices, it may even be the norm. But, for a television industry whose infrastructure has been built up […]

LAS VEGAS – The future is more complicated than it used to be. Now, a broadcaster’s go-to-market TV strategy can’t be just one distribution channel; it has to be many. That was the verdict of several executives on a panel of industry folk assembled to discuss TV companies’ response to the burgeoning new multi-screen future. The key […]

When Discovery invested $100mn in a new holding company for lifestyle publisher Thrillist last year, reports said it made CEO Ben Lerer a “new media mogul“. So what is Lerer doing with the money? Having formed Group Nine Media  to operate Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo and Seeker, he now runs a mini media company that […]

The Digital Content NewFronts may have been conceived as a showcase for publishers to wave under the noses of ad buyers for the year ahead. So what is a tech platform doing at the event? Amongst a series of appearances last week, Rocket Fuel, a predictive marketing platform, partnered with both Integral Ad Science and […]

The Digital Content NewFronts, a season when digital publishers line up to showcase their upcoming content roster to ad buyers, is now in to its ninth year. In that time, the series of pitches has grown to sit alongside TV’s upfronts as a way to secure advanced ad sales. And Jason Hill has seen its maturation. In this interview with Beet.TV, […]

To win in the new era of social video, advertisers need to take a leaf out of publishers’ book – and embrace a world in which videos have no sound. That is according to one executive whose company helps brands benefit from native ads. “We’re watching more video than ever on mute,” says Sharethrough market development […]

If you consider its precursor, Silicon Alley Insider, then business news powerhouse Business Insider should be celebrating its tenth anniversary this month. When co-founder Henry Blodget launched the site from New York, he may not have expected it would veer off the business beat, that it would go global or that it would make such […]

To some, the idea that playing video games would ever become a “sport”, played in front of thousands of pumped-up fans, was always fanciful. But that is exactly what has happened, with hundreds of players now playing in professional competitions around the world, viewed by online and in-person audiences that would put many TV channels to shame. […]

It started out as a tech news site for social media aficionados. But, after last year’s pivot including a staff restructure and a new focus on video production, Mashable now finds itself with a new story to tell. In this video interview with Beet.TV, founder and CEO Pete Cashmore calls Mashable “a global media company for […]

When David Finocchio co-founded Bleacher Report in Atherton, California, in 2007, it was with an aim to better serve young digital sports fans who were going un-served by legacy media. Five five years later, the success story of the site earned it an acquisition for $170mn by Time Warner. Now Finocchio, who is Bleacher Report’s CEO and […]

When Cosmopolitan.com was asked how to reach young women with lifestyle content, Amy Odell‘s answer was clear – mobile. That’s why online editor Odell and her team have built Cosmopolitan.com with such a strong focus on mobile. Specifically, Snapchat, which announced weaker-than-expected user growth this week, has been a big driver for Odell. Cosmo launched on to […]

At this years NewFronts, the seasonal showcase in which online publishers tout their upcoming content roster to advertising buyers, branded content programmes have never been more prevalent. Amongst offerings from BBC Worldwide, Hearst and others, Time Inc.’s custom branded content studio, The Foundry, was found pitching its slate. On the sidelines, The Foundry creative and content SVP Chris […]

It has taken two decades of internet evolution, but, little by little, the old web – led by text and static images – is being taken over by a world of video… at least, in the mind of publishers eager for new ways to package up stories, and advertisers keen to find new eyeballs. Few publishers […]

At home in the UK, it may be more commonly known as a broadcaster and online publisher that, by Royal charter, cannot carry advertising. But, elsewhere, the BBC’s commercial arm has built on its heritage of traditional ad sales by launching a sponsored content offering. BBC Worldwide launched StoryWorks back in 2015, and it now […]