The Associated Press might look like one of the few news outlets exempt from the tyranny of the “impression” that’s slowly eating away at media. Unlike most outlets, the AP makes most of its money not off ad revenue but via subscription services to its news wires, reports International Business Times.
The report, in part, stated:
“But the AP is only as healthy as its members, and those members are still very much tied to the click economy and its diminishing returns. With that in mind, the famous global news network is getting into the ad game in a big, and somewhat particular, way: It’s opening up its digital advertising shop for its subscribers, offering an inventory of sponsored content alongside its inventory of news stories.
“In some ways, it’s a natural outgrowth of the AP model: If you’re an outlet that can’t always afford to report on the goings-on in New Guinea, for instance, you can subscribe to the Associated Press and pull one of its reports. Similarly, if you’re a struggling outlet unable to pump out high-end sponsored content, you could now pull that content from the AP as well.
“We’re hoping to be able to make native advertising available for smaller members who can’t afford to make this stuff or could spend that kind of money,” Paul Caluori, AP’s global director of digital services, told International Business Times. “As you spread it across the membership, you become more attractive to agencies representing.”
““I’ve been at AP for 18 years, and the common thread on all the things I’ve worked on is to help members in different ways,” he added. “It would be overblown of me to say this is going to save members, but we want it to be a help.”
“This is not exactly a selfless move: In recent years, several members dropped their AP subscriptions because they didn’t want to keep paying for them. If newsrooms keep losing money, news wires like the AP will lose their customer base.
“This latest move, which the AP was planning to announce Monday, is the news wire’s first foray into advertising, but it came out of another service AP’s been providing for about 10 years: “AP Assignments” is an in-house business that produces high-quality photographic and video material for brands to “build into” their own marketing material.”
0 Comments