 |
Hearst Newspapers is entering the pay-per-article world by launching a system that allows advertisers to tie their messages to “hand-selected” stories, rather than just placing them on a specific landing page.
Hearst says the service will focus on breaking news.
Under the service, advertisers could pick key words, as well as set the type of breaking news stories with which they want their ads to appear. When an article meeting their criteria goes up in the specified section of the online publication, their ad will appear with that article.
|
|
A story from Hearst's chron.com, with a promoted headline above the regular one.Developed by “engagement company” SolidOpinion, the system is currently testing at websites affiliated with several Hearst papers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Connecticut Post.
The ads take the form of what SolidOpinion calls promoted headlines, a line of copy that runs immediately above a story’s headline. That promoted headline, which could also be linked to the advertiser’s website, would be a running part of the site’s editorial content, rather than existing in separate advertising space.
Stories that are not currently sponsored by an advertiser will have a line of type running above them promoting the option of running an ad.
The system would eliminate one major hurdle that faces banner ads on web pages: ad-blocking software. “We’re not banner code, we’re part of the page, so we can’t get blocked,” a promotional video from SolidOpinion says.
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform. 
Symbolic.ai forms a partnership with News Corp to begin using the company’s AI-native publisher platform in the newsrooms of News Corp publications to augment research, writing and publishing... Mediaite launches a newsletter that promises to give readers a summary of—media newsletters... The Fund for American Studies launches the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program that will provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters, and media professionals.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has roots going back to 1786, is going out of business, the paper’s owners, Block Communications, announced on Jan. 7... GQ editor Will Welch is stepping down to take on a new Paris-based role with the musician Pharrell, who is also men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton... Semafor says it has raised $30 million on a $330 million valuation, following its first profitable year. 
The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach an agreement that will make a set of more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars available for use by Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform... CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has moved Tony Dokoupil, a co-host at “CBS Mornings” since 2019, into the anchor’s chair for the “CBS Evening News,” following the departure of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois... USA Today editor-in-chief Caren Bohan has left the paper.
