Special Offer: Subscribe today for a free ticket ($499 value) to The Future of Startups. Redeem Now
Mic CEO Chris Altchek. Photo by Flickr/Ole Bader.
Media/Telecom

Fewer but Bigger Ad Deals Challenge Smaller Publishers

Photo: Mic CEO Chris Altchek. Photo by Flickr/Ole Bader.

There’s good news and bad news for digital media firms. The good news is that advertisers are finally plowing big money into new ad formats, particularly “branded content” like sponsored videos which mimics editorial content. The bad news: This favors big publishers over small.

And that may be a catalyst toward combinations in online publishing.

Get access to exclusive coverage
Read deeply reported stories from the largest newsroom in tech.
Latest Articles
 
Modest Proposals Startups Markets
Equity Financing for Influencers
By Sam Lessin · Jan. 26, 2021 9:01 AM PST
Art by Sam Lessin
The most valuable brands of the future are going to be people rather than companies. The shift in that direction is starting to happen right under our noses. Take the case of Elon Musk. You can’t assess Tesla’s $800 billion market capitalization against any sort of realistic view of its financial prospects. The stock isn’t valued as a business but as an Elon Musk trading card....
Latest Briefs
 
Stripe-Backed Payments Startup Raises $102 Million
By Kate Clark · Jan. 26, 2021
Google Won’t Make Donations to Lawmakers Opposing Election Results 
By Christopher Stern · Jan. 26, 2021
China’s Didi Chuxing Raises $1.5 Billion for New Freight Business
By Shai Oster · Jan. 26, 2021
Stay in the know
Receive a summary of the day's top tech news—distilled into one email.
Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
Clubhouse Co-Founder and CEO Paul Davison. Photo: Bloomberg
Exclusive Venture Capital Startups
Clubhouse Gets Investment Interest at $1 Billion Valuation
By Zoë Bernard, Kate Clark and Alex Heath
Update : On Sunday, Clubhouse confirmed it raised a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Read more details in our brief .
Org Charts Startups Markets
The People With Power at Robinhood
By Kate Clark
Last year, as Robinhood’s trading activity boomed and legal problems mounted, the $11.7 billion startup shook up the ranks of its senior staff.
Andreessen Horowitz co-founders Marc Andreessen (left) and Ben Horowitz. Photo by Bloomberg.
Exclusive Venture Capital
Andreessen Horowitz Looks to Launch Opinion Publication as Its Media Ambition Grows
By Zoë Bernard
Silicon Valley investment firm Andreessen Horowitz, which once courted attention from the news media, is ramping up its own media efforts.
A truck next to an Amazon delivery station in New Jersey in October. Photo by Bloomberg
Exclusive Travel E-commerce
Amazon Expands Secretive Trucking Program
By Paris Martineau
Amazon’s effort to exert control over the trucking of goods to its customers is moving quickly.
Rioters breached barricades to enter the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Photo: Bloomberg
Exclusive Travel Policy
Airbnb Used Facebook and Twitter to Weed Out Hate Groups
By Cory Weinberg
For the past few years, a specialized team of about half a dozen employees within Airbnb has been assigned an urgent task: preventing white nationalists and other potentially dangerous fringe groups from renting homes on the site.
Photos by Bloomberg; Shutterstock. Illustration by Mike Sullivan
The Takeaway Policy
I Helped Uncover QAnon. Failed Prophecies Won’t Kill It
By Paris Martineau
I first stumbled upon the collective delusion we now refer to as QAnon in November 2017, just a few weeks after it began as a series of conspiratorial posts on one of the internet’s more untamed bulletin boards.