TikTok adapts ad offer to gain premium publisher brand effects

TikTok is bringing in a new feature that will allow publishers to sell ads alongside their posts and keep half the revenue, according to reports.

Why it matters

A bigger cut of an advertising-spend destination that is expected to grow ad revenues 51.7% this year would appear a good place for ailing publishers to focus.

Heavy media layoffs remain raw, and many workers will fear another “pivot to video” that scorched publishers back in the late 2010s. 

However, for advertisers, this should be good news as the new feature blends the quality, trusted environment of premium publishing with the high traffic and young audience of TikTok.

The story

The Wall Street Journal reports that the new product, Pulse Premiere, expands on its creator-focused Pulse, which gives top creators a 50% cut of ads placed around their posts.

Premiere now extends this benefit to certain major publishers, among them Condé Nast, DotDash Meredith, Hearst Magazines, MLS, NBCUniversal, UFC, Vox Media, WWE and, interestingly, Buzzfeed.

“Pulse Premiere gives brands the control to choose where their ads are placed, adjacent to content from our premium publishing partners,” TikTok’s release explains.

The big question

Mass layoffs across digital media companies have resurfaced a vital question: can online publishers still maintain a sustainable business when beholden to the traffic sent their way from platforms?

The answer is not really; publishers will wonder whether TikTok-mediated ad revenue may not be the ultimate solution to their broader business problem.

An experimental space

TikTok’s new feature appears as something of an olive branch. The popular app had already been an area of interest for newsrooms. Publishers should be aware that TikTok stands to gain from adding more publisher content, which can help lend it a halo of credibility, in exchange for a higher cut of advertising revenues directly from the platform.

Sourced from the Wall Street Journal, TikTok, WARC, Slate, The Guardian