A group of news sites from across the political spectrum have formed the Digital News Alliance, an advertising sales partnership that is intended to help them compete with Facebook and Google.
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The alliance includes such conservative-leaning sites as The Daily Caller and Washington Free Beacon as well as left-leaning outlets that include Alternet and Raw Story. Mediaite and its sister site Law & Crime, which tend to take a more middle-of-the-road approach, are also part of the package.
According to both Daily Caller and Mediaite, the alliance will offer advertising packages geared toward the 2020 political advertising cycle, which WPP-owned media buying agency GroupM says is expected to bring in almost $10 billion in ad spending, and beyond. Both sites note that the properties currently on board bring in over 145 million page views per month. They also have a combined 11 million Facebook followers and 1.1 million Twitter followers.
A Wall Street Journal report cites eMarketer figures that show Facebook and Google as controlling 60 percent of all digital ad spending, putting an ever-increasing amount of pressure on sites that depend on advertising revenue.
“This alliance will help fortify digital journalism’s position in challenging market conditions and will bolster our continuing efforts to provide high-quality investigative reporting to our readers,” said Washington Free Beacon president Aaron Harison.
Law & Crime chief operating officer and general counsel Andrew Eisbrouch told the Journal that the alliance is currently in talks with other political publishers to join up.
The alliance says it will begin selling campaigns immediately.
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