• by Fern Siegel , January 5, 2018

Penske Media, whose brands include Variety, Deadline and WWD, expanded its strategic partnership with Outbrain, which focuses on sponsored content.

Now, Outbrain is giving Penske full control over its most valuable real estate. “This means allowing sales, audience development and editorial teams to run the content they need within their Outbrain placements in order to deliver on their revenue goals,” says Dennis Yuscavitch, senior director of product marketing for Outbrain.

Yuscavitch adds the solutions differ from the existing product offering "because PMC can now grow revenues beyond the direct revenue Outbrain enables through sponsored-content recommendations."

Two products enable PMC to improve revs, including enhancements in personalized editorial content: Organic Campaigns and Automatic Yield. The tools ties all these pieces together into one report via a single dashboard. 

In fact, PMC has seen a 110% increase in incremental revenue, since launching with Automatic Yield last March, which marries real-time revenue value with the owned content a publisher circulates throughout its site.

Yaron Galai, cofounder and co-CEO of Outbrain, stated he believes “the industry needs to take a longer-term view of the reader experience, while they may forgo short-term revenue, publishers can build a more lasting relationship with their readers.”

On the initial tech launch, Matt Crenshaw, head of global distribution, Outbrain, said Automatic Yield helps publishers with content syndication decisions. “By understanding the revenue value of the content on their sites, they can determine what’s worth syndicating on places like Facebook."

Other publishers that use the Outbrain platform include CNN, ESPN, Time Inc., Le Monde,The Guardian, The Telegraph, Sky News and Condé Nast. Outbrain serves more than 275 billion personalized recommendations, reaching nearly 1 billion users every month across the globe.

PMC attracts a monthly audience of more than 180 million, per comScore. Other publications include IndieWire, Robb Report and Hollywood Life.

In November 2017, PMD acquired Fashinvest, which connects fashion-tech, retail and  branded goods with the investment sector.