Dive Brief: 

• Custom Content Council released findings from a survey that revealed spending on branded content is set to hit $1.8 million this year, making up 37% of marketers' ad budgets. 
• Publications are seeing the bulk of that spend, $1 million, in 2013, up from $775,000 in 2012.
• Of the respondents, 73% said that branded content is better than magazine ads. This seems to bode poorly for magazines, but many are making up for the losses in ads by creating branded content themselves. 

Dive Insight: 

The numbers from Custom Content Council help to solidify the industry speculation that branded content was growing in popularity among marketers. The fact that the majority of marketers surveyed preferred branded content over magazine ads underscores the direction the industry is moving.