The New York Times is juicing up its ad revenue by bringing so-called open programmatic advertising back to its mobile app. Open programmatic is a methodology that lets any advertiser buy digital ads in real-time.
In 2019, the Times shut down open programmatic ads from its mobile app because it wanted to focus on growing subscriptions and because those ads reportedly slowed the app’s load times. The Times kept programmatic ads on its website.
But earlier this year, the Times quietly expanded its programmatic initiatives to let some of its adtech partners sell those ads on its News app as well. The Times’ popular News app is the top free offering in the news category of Apple’s App Store.
“Given recent industry advances, and after conducting an in-depth experimentation and testing phase, we have reintroduced high quality open-programmatic ads in our News app and website,” said a spokesperson from the Times. “These ads do not take away from our reader-focused, premium experience. We’ve seen positive results from other limited experimentation onsite with strict quality control measures and will continue to explore this area.”
The Times did not specify which adtech partners are allowed to sell ads on its News app.
However, it currently allows Google, Index Exchange, PubMatic, and Magnite among others to sell programmatic ads on its desktop website according to its ads.txt file, which lists the companies publishers allow to sell programmatic ads.
The move shows how publishers like the Times are getting savvier about how to sell programmatic ads at scale that are still of premium quality, said Matt Barash, SVP of the Americas and global publishing at Index Exchange.
Open programmatic is also a boon for publishers during leaner times, because they attract marketers looking for ads that don’t cost a lot and are easy to buy.
The Times has touted the recovery of its digital advertising business in recent quarters. During an earnings call in August 2022 the Times reported that its digital advertising business declined 2.4%, due partially to macroeconomic factors and because the publisher didn’t have enough programmatic inventory, company CFO Roland Caputo said at the time.
But this year, it’s been a different story. CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said during the company’s August earnings call earlier this year that its advertising performance surpassed expectations, and digital advertising was up 6.5%.
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