Dive Brief:
- Daily Mail announced a $3 million investment in publishing tech firm Taboola to help it improve its native advertising strategies.
- According to CEO Jon Steinberg, "At the end of the day, we have to move so quickly. We're all competing against Facebook, ultimately."
- Daily Mail had been frustrated with its current system of selling native ads through DoubleClick, citing efficiency as the issue. The Taboola investment will help the publication speed up the native ad process and eventually create new native ad units.
Dive Insight:
Steinberg's candor about competing with Facebook rings true. With Instant Articles and other advancements, Facebook has become the standard by which publications can measure their success. Outside of using Facebook directly, publications are on the hunt for new revenue streams and ad opportunities.
Taboola represents those opportunities for the Daily Mail. Taboola also announced a new product this week -- a feature that allows readers to weigh in on what native ad content they see. The feature will not only improve reader experience, but also glean reader data that will improve native ad delivery overall.
