• by Melynda Fuller , March 22, 2018

With the traffic and monetary instability associated with social media, publishers are frequently seeking new ways to bring their content to readers, while also maintaining a healthy bottom line. Even when social-media plans work, algorithm changes, social-media scandals and a scarcity of ad revenue dollars circulating outside the duopoly often put publishers in a precarious position.

Video syndication and monetization platform Connatix, one of the fastest growing in the native advertising realm, introduces Stories for Publishers as an option to alleviate the sting of social media reliance.

Built on Connatix proprietary tech stack, Stories for Publishers is a stand-alone product that allows publishers to develop and integrate their contact in a social-media-like setting on their own site, where they can control the monetization and quality of their content. The product also provides publishers with access to the Connatix programmatic marketplace for monetization. 

“Publishers are investing resources in creating unique vertical, visual and interactive content to be consumed by users, but they publish this content on social platforms, thus losing the ability to monetize their hard work and maintain a sustainable business,” David Kashak, CEO/founder of Connatix told Publishing Insider. 

“We understood this problem and wanted to bring the control back to the publishers so they can interact with users through a similar experience, but on their own terms,” he adds.

The platform is based on a set of intuitive tools that “ingest and index the editorial content and semi-automatically create the structure for the story item.” The editor can easily customize the look and feel of a story and also control the ways in which readers interact with it. The platform allows editors to use content they’ve already created and know works. 

Publishers control monetization of the unit through short vertical video ads inserted between story items.

According to Kashak, advertisers have been investing in this type of creative to comply with social-media standards. Stories for Publishers allows them to seamlessly advertise on a publisher’s own website without the need for those “walled-garden environments.” 

Kashak says: “This allows gestures, such as clicking, swiping and tapping to engage with the unit. A special emphasis is given to interactivity through surveys, which allow the user to express opinions and get the crowed response as well.”

The company has been working with several major publishers to create stories on the platform and announcements should follow in the coming weeks.