Postmedia launches new advertising division
The division will produce custom native ad campaigns (i.e., editorial-style advertising) for advertisers and brand clients.
By Chantal Braganza, Associate Editor
Last week, Postmedia announced the launch of a new advertising division called Postmedia Content Solutions. The division will produce custom native ad campaigns (i.e., editorial-style advertising) for clients that through the Native Network, a content management platform designed in partnership with Polar Mobile Group, can be distributed to its national and local digital properties.
The Polar Mobile partnership on this new platform began about eight months ago, after Postmedia had seen some success on similar work it had done with the Financial Post two years before said Yuri Machado, senior vice-president of advertising and strategy.
“We use the term ‘network’ because it overlays on the Postmedia network; all our brands, including community brands and the National Post,” Machado said. “It sits between our content management system and our ad deployment system called DFP [DoubleClick for Publishers]… it gives us the flexibility to push out pieces of content the way we would ads.”
Currently, 13 properties will initially participate in Postmedia Content Solutions’ program, including the National Post, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, the Vancouver Sun—and as of May, canada.com, which lost most of its dedicated staff in February.
In addition, Machado said, the new division will work with Postmedia Labs to promote its campaigns on social media and workshop how advertised brands may be incorporated into its current programs, such as Gastropost.
The team producing the editorial-style ad campaigns is separate from Postmedia’s newsrooms and led by former Canadian Press editor-in-chief Scott White, who joined as vice-president of content strategy and business development last year. It currently consists of about 10 people, most of whom are editors. “We also have a slew of freelancers who have sector-based specialties,” Machado said. “As we build out this offering we’ll be building this team out.”
Note: This article has been updated to correct a previously published error regarding the Vancouver Sun’s ownership.
