Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
On The Up
AppNexus raised $31 million in a round led by News Corp and Yahoo Japan, Business Insider reports. WPP’s investment is thought to have come with minimum spend guarantees, though there’s no confirmation the same is true for News Corp. Unruly, a video ad tech company News Corp. acquired last year, will place its vertical video inventory on AppNexus’ exchange. More. It’s worth noting that last year News Corp. disclosed a significant stake in Rubicon Project, which competes directly with AppNexus. And like Rubicon, AppNexus is expected to ride the wave of ad tech IPOs [AdExchanger coverage].
Seller’s Remorse
More than once, publishers have gone all-in on Facebook without pausing to think. “There was a traffic gold rush, and we participated in it,” according to Slate editor Julia Turner, who’s actively working to wean Slate off Facebook traffic. “This year, when the algorithm seemed more fickle, we began to feel there were diminishing returns.” Digiday reports that Slate is kicking its Facebook habit by optimizing toward loyal reader preferences instead of traffic. Meanwhile, Ad Age writes that a growing number of publishers are rethinking their Facebook Live strategies. “We don’t think volume is the play,” says Bleacher Report President Rory Brown. “Our theory is the real winners in Live will be the brands that create premium content.”
Algo Next
ProPublica reporter Julia Angwin is investigating the algorithms that define the digital economy. After dissecting Amazon, she has turned her attention to Facebook. “Facebook offers advertisers more than 1,300 categories for ad targeting – everything from people whose property size is less than .26 acres to households with exactly seven credit cards,” Anwin writes. If Angwin’s name is familiar, that may be because she created The Wall Street Journal’s “What They Know” series. More.
But Wait, There’s More!
- Programmatic Trends: Data, Consolidation And Direct Deals – MediaPost
- Facebook At Work To Launch Next Month – TechCrunch
- Visual IQ Launches Daily Attribution Methodology – release
- Controlling Shareholder Pushes To Re-Merge CBS And Viacom – Reuters
- Tapad Intros Viewable Exposure Time (VET) Cross-Device Metric – release
- Scalability And Efficiency Prompted LinkedIn Programmatic Display – eMarketer
- Programmatic Native Is Here, And Premium Pubs Are Wary – Digiday
- EngageSimply Launches Semantic-Powered Programmatic – release
- European Facebook Advertising Benchmark Report – Nanagins
- Circa Launches VR 360 Ad And Content Platform – release
- Amazon Is Eating Away At Google’s Core Business – Business Insider
- Facebook Hits 4 Million Advertiser Benchmark – CNBC
- IAB Publishes “What Works And Why” In Digital Report – release
You’re Hired!
