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New York Times Co. (NYT), looking to imitate the business models used by startups such as BuzzFeed Inc., is considering letting advertisers sponsor more stories on its website, two people with knowledge of the situation said.
In a series of meetings with senior sales and editorial staff last month, Chairman Arthur Sulzberger and Chief Executive Officer Mark Thompson discussed the idea of offering bigger sponsorship opportunities to advertisers, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks were private. Outside executives such as BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti were brought in to talk about creating successful “native ads,” which often take the form of sponsored stories.
The 161-year-old publisher is seeking new sources of revenue after 10 straight quarters of declining newspaper ad sales. Annual advertising revenue has been cut almost in half to $711.8 million last year from $1.27 billion in 2006, before the recession and a proliferation of mobile devices crippled the newspaper industry.
In embracing new sponsorship opportunities, the Times will make it clear when readers are seeing an ad versus a regular story, said Todd Haskell, a vice president of advertising at the New York-based company. He declined to discuss what presenters shared at the recent meetings or the reaction of Times Co. executives.
“What we’re looking at is ways you can use journalistic storytelling techniques in how you could present a narrative for our clients without misleading or confusing the reader,” Haskell said in an interview. His staff is constantly considering new ad formats, including custom, advertorial-like content for the Times website, he said.
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Bloomberg]