Dive Brief:
- Tabloola signed a three-year deal with Gannett worth around $50 million to make relevant content recommendations for Gannett readers in over 110 markets.
- This partnership gives Gannett access to Taboola Native, a version of Tabloola’s discovery platform that enables publishers to directly sell exclusive in-feed and mid-article placements to advertisers.
- Other recent Tabloola deals include Bloomberg, NBC News Digital, The McClatchy Company, and Reader’s Digest.
Dive Insight:
Tech firm Taboola, which offers tools that direct users to related web content, has been active in signing exclusive partnerships with publishers. Through this partnership, it and Gannett will work together on analyzing audience behavior to further drive engagement and the next generation of personalization in mobile. The partnership also gives Gannett access to Taboola’s ad discovery platform, Taboola Native.
“As the digital ecosystem becomes more fragmented, consumers around the world should be seeing different executions of the web, tailored for them,” Adam Singolda, founder and CEO of Taboola, said in a statement. “We’re excited to collaborate with such a top-notch and well respected media company such as Gannett and help connect users with content they may like and never knew existed.”
In the same statement, David Payne, chief product officer of Gannett, said, “Taboola provides us with valuable insights that help us gain an enhanced understanding of how consumers are behaving across our entire network. This will help us test different content for specific audience segments for improved engagement.”
USA Today publisher Gannett is expected to generate $45 million to $55 million in revenue from the deal, Singolda told Reuters. Reuters also reports that the U.S.-Israeli company has raised more than $157 million in private money and is estimated to have a value of more than $1 billion.
In June, Daily Mail announced a $3 million investment in Taboola to help it improve its native advertising strategies. Earlier this spring, China's biggest search provider Baidu formed a partnership Taboola to bring its content-recommendation platform to China. Baidu also reportedly contributed between $20 and $30 million to a $117 million Series E round Taboola secured prior to the Daily Mail investment.
