Giant media holding Gannett seems to have carefully paved its road to even more ad inventory – only this time it’s going to be the most sought-after type, video inventory.
It’s only been two weeks since Gannett made public their partnership with Platform-A’s ADTECH and have their content network monetized through Helios IQ. At the time, the move went almost unnoticed because, well, companies do tend to switch ad serving providers every now and then.
However, what was really cooking behind the scenes was the funding of Mogulus, a company who’s got what Gannett is currently after: video inventory, with a marginal CPM profit significantly higher than traditional display ads. In this light, it seems that Gannett may have jumped over to ADTECH in exchange for a sweet deal on ad serving fees, although, of course, this is mere supposition.
Read the press release in full below.
McLEAN, VA – Gannett said today it has made a minority investment in Mogulus, a New York- based Internet video platform. The investment extends and expands on Gannett’s three-month-old commercial agreement with Mogulus to provide broadcasting services on the company’s Web sites.
That agreement, signed in April, has enabled Gannett newspapers and television stations to perform live, groundbreaking broadcasts, including:
* The Indianapolis Star’s (www.indystar.com) live editorial interview of Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barak Obama, which attracted more than 40,000 concurrent viewers.
* The Webcast by www.azcentral.com of the press conference when the NFL announced the city that will be hosting the 2012 Super Bowl. Azcentral.com is the combined Web site of The Arizona Republic and KPNX-TV in Phoenix, AZ.
* A live Webcast of the interview with Sen. Hillary Clinton by the Argus Leader (www.argusleader.com) in Sioux Falls, SD.
Terms of the agreement and the investment were not disclosed.
“Mogulus adds a new and exciting dimension to Gannett’s already broad-based multimedia journalism efforts. Our reporters and photographers in the field are equipped with video cameras, laptops and broadband wireless connections to enable timely and relevant news delivery to the Web. Now, with Mogulus, all our journalists – including print and Web reporters – can deliver live, multi-camera broadcasts of news events to our customers,” said Craig A. Dubow, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) “Live internet broadcasting tools are essential in this new media age. We believe in the space and in the ability of Mogulus to deliver.”
Mogulus gives users everything they need to launch their own live 24/7 television station online, including multiple camera and editing capability. So far, more than 100,000 producers have launched their own Mogulus channels, which can be viewed at www.mogulus.com and throughout the Web via the Mogulus players. The viewing audience has doubled every 60 days for the past 10 months, mounting up to more than 200,000,000 unique viewer minutes monthly.
Mogulus will complement Gannett’s already robust multimedia infrastructure by adding the capabilities of its broadcast studio “in a box” to journalists’ information gathering tool kits. Using the Mogulus studio, professionals and amateurs can easily mix multiple live cameras, video clips and overlay graphics.
Mogulus offers an ad-supported free service as well as an upcoming white label Pro version; the service is live and on-demand. Mogulus producers range from video bloggers and independent producers to large media companies such as Fox and Gannett.
“This investment from Gannett is a terrific partnership which will not only give us the financial resources to secure Mogulus as the leading live broadcasting service but also gives us our first major Mogulus Pro customer,” said Max Haot, co-founder and CEO at Mogulus. “Our immediate priority is now to accelerate our product development to launch Mogulus Pro, recruit senior executives in the areas of service sales and advertising sales and deploy the Mogulus Pro service deeper within Gannett properties and those of other customers.”
About Mogulus
Mogulus is the most powerful live broadcast platform on the Internet. Producers can use the Mogulus browser-based Studio application to create LIVE, scheduled and on-demand Internet television to broadcast anywhere on the Web through a single player widget. The service comes in two flavors: Free (ad-supported) and Pro (white-label, no-ads, pay for usage). Unique features include the ability to mix multiple live cameras, imported videos clips, and overlay graphics. With Mogulus, producers can broadcast live from a mobile phone; use a customizable flash player with integrated chat; and develop a branded channel page on Mogulus.com that incorporates interactive chat.
About Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. is a leading international news and information company that publishes 85 daily newspapers in the USA, including USA TODAY, the nation’s largest-selling daily newspaper. The company also owns nearly 900 non-daily publications in the USA and USA WEEKEND, a weekly newspaper magazine. Gannett subsidiary Newsquest is the United Kingdom’s second largest regional newspaper company. Newsquest publishes nearly 300 titles, including 17 daily newspapers, and a network of prize-winning Web sites. Gannett also operates 23 television stations in the United States and is an Internet leader with sites sponsored by its TV stations and newspapers including USATODAY.com, one of the most popular news sites on the Web.
