Dive Brief:

• The New York Times has seen a dramatic decrease in traditional display advertisements, such as banner ads, which now account for less than half of its digital advertising revenue, according to Poynter.
• The shift away from traditional display comes as advertisers move to mobile and native formats. It has become dramatic enough that the NYT recorded a 7% year-over-year loss in digital ad revenues.
• NYT President and CEO Mark Thompson predicts a return to double-digit growth for the rest of 2016 as the company shifts toward “digital 2.0,” with ads formats such as sponsored content and campaigns that take advantage of cutting edge technology like virtual reality.

Dive Insight:

The New York Times is learning a digital advertising lesson that Facebook has already faced down: banner ads are losing value to native, mobile and video formats. The banner format provides a poor user experience, according to Facebook, and also did not provide satisfactory returns for advertisers. In response Facebook dropped the display format from its ad tech platform in favor of native and video ad formats.

The NYT is taking a similar approach, according to Thompson and top ad executive Meredith Kopit Levien. Levien told Poynter that there will be more of a push around sponsored content and native ads, as well as longer campaigns that involve strategic brandbuilding over time.

"These complex deals take longer to get in place.” she told Poynter in explaining the NYT’s drop in digital ad revenue.