Dive Brief:

• The New York Times acquired digital marketing agency HelloSociety in an all cash deal, and will merge the firm with its in-house ad agency T Brand Studio.
• HelloSociety was founded in 2012 specializing in marketing campaigns, particularly influencer campaigns, on Pinterest, according to Fortune.
• Publishers such as Forbes and Bloomberg have been going beyond simply offering traditional advertising options and getting into territory more familiar to full-service marketing agencies.

Dive Insight:

"We believe the best digital advertising will increasingly take the shape of high-quality visual programming, and we are building out T Brand Studio’s services and capabilities to deliver on that promise," Meredith Kopit Levien, New York Times Company executive vice president and chief revenue officer, said in a statement.

The move illustrates how publishers are branching out beyond traditional advertising and actually creating marketing content for clients themselves.

For example Forbes is creating an influencer network where advertisers pay for access to influential journalists, academics and bloggers instead of the usual influencer marketplace of social media stars. And last year Bloomberg’s internal creative agency began running a campaign for its first client outside of the media company – Morgan Stanley.