• by Sara Guaglione , July 13, 2017

In a move to expand its native advertising business, Time Inc. has promoted Chris Schraft to president of content sales and agency development of The Foundry, its branded content studio. He will oversee The Foundry’s Branded/Native Sales Center of Excellence (COE).

Previously, Time Inc.’s category and brand sales teams represented The Foundry. Now, Time Inc. is creating the COE to support the sales teams.

“The COE is going to be really proactive in the marketplace. It’s all about building awareness and preference for The Foundry across our agency partners,” Schraft told Publishers Daily. “We will be actively trying to create demand for The Foundry’s services and capabilities.”

Schraft will continue to lead Time Inc.’s agency development team. He has been at Time Inc. for a decade and was a key figure behind The Foundry’s launch in 2015. Native advertising doubled for the company in The Foundry’s first year.

Schraft said they are on track to double native ads again year-over-year in 2017. He has served as president of Time Inc. Content Solutions since 2007.

In addition, Chris McLoughlin will serve as SVP and head of sales at The Foundry. He will report to Schraft and help the COE grow Time Inc.’s advertising business.

McLoughlin rejoins Time Inc. from LittleThings.com, where he was Chief Revenue Officer. He has also served as publisher of Rolling Stone. He started his career at Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated as New York advertising director.

Time Inc. cited a recent study it conducted with over 17,000 Gen Z, millennial and Gen X respondents, revealing that two out of three consumers have greater trust in custom content than in traditional advertising.

“Native advertising is a big part of our growth strategy as a company. We have taken a leadership position in the content space, and we see an opportunity to drive further growth in this area,” Schraft said.

Separately, The New Yorker has hired Dan Oshinsky as its first director of newsletters. He begins August 7. Currently, he holds the same title at BuzzFeed.

Oshinsky was instrumental in growing BuzzFeed’s newsletters; he was the only one working on them when he started in 2012. Now, BuzzFeed has 2 million subscribers to its dozen core newsletters. They are one of the site's biggest sources of traffic, according to Michael Luo, editor of NewYorker.com.

The New Yorker’s daily newsletter has more than 1 million subscribers.

Luo wrote that more can be done to reach new audiences and turn more people into regular readers and, eventually, paying subscribers. "As people flee the clutter of their social feeds, email is becoming an increasingly powerful way for us to connect with our readers,” he noted.

Oshinsky will work to improve The New Yorker’s existing lineup of newsletters and launch new ones, as well as assist with its other digital products.