• by Sara Guaglione , April 4, 2017

In a new partnership, millennial sports publisher Minute Media is giving media-services agency Horizon Media and its clients access to Minute Media’s content publishing platform.

Minute Media’s technology powers its sports publishing brands 90min, 12up and DBLTAP, which serves more than 75 million users per month.

While Minute Media has licensed its content platform to other publishers outside the U.S., such as ProSieben in Germany and HT Media in India, this is the first partnership with a company in the advertising sector.

Rich Routman, president of Minute Media, told Publishers Daily the company created the platform to create “high quality content in the right format for a millennial consumer. We didn’t think there was [another content technology] in the market that did what we wanted.”

Unlike other publishing platforms, Minute Media’s technology is social and mobile first, rather than built for desktop, Routman said.

Routman said Minute Media never intended to sell the technology when it was built. He believes programmatic data and targeting have eliminated the need for brands to rely on publishers for reach and frequency, and now publishers need to find ways to provide value in other ways. Many have done so by forming content studios and providing first-party data.

“If you are a publisher and you’re selling reach and frequency, you are going to be a dinosaur quickly,” Routman said. “It’s about staying nimble.”  He said the discussion transformed from talking "about media and impressions" to discussing "content technology innovation" and platforms.

Both Minute and Horizon agree that there is a “convergence” happening in digital media, he added, where brands are becoming more like publishers.

“As the industry continues to evolve, brand needs and publisher needs are more closely aligned,” stated Donnie Williams, chief digital officer of Horizon Media.