Dive Brief:
- IBTimes is expanding its business side by hiring a CMO and planning on adding 50 employees in sales, marketing, tech and analytics.
- The business website is the flagship of IBT Media and up to now its ads have been handled through advertising networks serving retargeted ads.
- This push into IBTime’s business is an effort to grab direct ad dollars.
Dive Insight:
Business website IBTimes hired Mitchell Caplan, formerly of McCann and Y&R, as its CMO. This move is indicative of a push into tapping into the direct ad marketplace for the flagship website of IBT Media. IBT Media is probably best known for buying Newsweek two years ago. This shows a new revenue focus for IBTimes, which up to now only serves programmatic ads from advertising networks.
Co-Founder Etienne Uzac explained the new push for IBTime’s business, saying, “We’ve made a lot of progress, and now it’s time to add that marketing varnish. We’re very editorial-heavy right now.”
He added, “At the scale we have, there is a limited amount of revenue that can be generated through pipelines. There’s still a lot of money to be made from direct. We have a global viewpoint. So I think we’re going to be a great fit for international campaigns.”
IBTimes originally staked its claim as an aggregator and a search-driven website with writers incentivized with traffic bonuses. The site has already made 45 new editorial hires, reaching out to established journalists.