NEW YORK – (June 17, 2015) – Digital Content Next (DCN), the only trade association dedicated to serving the unique and diverse needs of high-quality digital content companies today announced the appointment of Kevin Gentzel as Publisher-in-Residence. Gentzel, most recently head of advertising sales, North America at Yahoo!, will work with the organization in an advisory capacity and partner with the market development team to actively recruit new members for the organization.

The rotating publisher-in-residence position will act as a platform for top digital publishers to work closely with DCN CEO Jason Kint, collaborating on research, providing expertise on pressing industry issues, hosting working sessions and supporting and advancing the industry at large.

Gentzel has had a long career in the digital publishing industry, including holding Chief Revenue Officer positions at Forbes and The Washington Post, both DCN-member companies. Gentzel was also the President and Group Publisher of Forbes Media from 2009 to 2010.

“At DCN, we want to remain front-and-center in conversations digital content brands are having within their organizations, with advertisers and with consumers,” said Kint. “By welcoming experts like Kevin into our fold, we are extending our reach and amplifying our voice on the issues and challenges of today and the innovation on the horizon.”

“It is an honor to be named DCN’s first publisher-in-residence,” said Gentzel. “I have spent the majority of my career working for DCN member companies so I have a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities that they face. I am excited to join Jason and the DCN team and to continue to progress the initiatives they have been aggressively pursuing for the membership.”

Also announced today is the hiring of Research Director Rande Price. In recent months, DCN has expanded its scope to share additional intelligence and industry findings through its InContext website, public events and studies. Recent DCN reports include “Practical Tips for a Programmatic Future” and “How Time-Based Measurement is Grabbing Digital Publishers’ Attention”.  Price will take lead on all upcoming external research projects as well as ongoing members-only studies such as the recently-completed “Financial and Operational Benchmarking Study”, a confidential study which breaks out advertising consumption, revenue, expense and personnel comparisons across DCN member companies and is one of the key benefits to membership.

Price joins DCN from QBE where she led digital and branding research. Prior, Price spent six years at TV Guide in Sales Marketing and Marketing Research. She has also worked in the research departments of major media brands Yahoo, AOL and Nickelodeon over the course of her career.

DCN has added 12 new members in the past year: Refinery29, Independent Journal Review, E.W. Scripps Company, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, NewsBeat Social, Newsday, Rodale, Telegraph Media Group, Vocativ, Vox Media and Warner Bros.

In the coming months, DCN will continue its The Next Conversation dinner series in partnership with Adweek in August in addition to its members-only Video Day in July and Mobile Day in November.

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ABOUT DIGITAL CONTENT NEXT

Founded in June 2001 as the Online Publishers Association (OPA), Digital Content Next is the only trade organization dedicated to serving the unique and diverse needs of high-quality digital content companies that manage trusted, direct relationships with consumers and marketers. Comprised of some of the most trusted and well-respected media brands, DCN produces proprietary research for its members and the public, creates public and private forums to explore and advance key issues that impact digital content brands, offers an influential voice that speaks for digital content companies in the press, with advertisers and policy makers, and works to educate the public at large on the importance of quality content brands. More information about Digital Content Next is available at http://www.digitalcontentnext.org.

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Contact: Kaitlyn Kurosky
HIGH10 MEDIA
212 918 2040
[email protected]

New York, NY—(April 29, 2015) — Digital Content Next (DCN) today released insights into the future of programmatic advertising based on in-depth interviews with executives at 10 digital content companies from DCN’s membership including Vox, The Weather Company, Business Insider and CBS Interactive. “Practical Tips for a Programmatic Future” offers a behind-the-scenes peek at these organizations and details how they have prepared for a future with an expected continued rise in programmatic spend. DCN’s key takeaway—that programmatic is not a channel but a broad set of automation and efficiency tactics that can be employed across a range of inventory—is one of the valuable insights from the white paper.

“At DCN we’re focused on engaging our membership and the industry as a whole on large-scale issues because an open dialogue and shared learning help to pave the future for trusted content companies and the brands that advertise on them,” said Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next. “Our discussions with members show that the rise of programmatic has a lot of positives in terms of efficiency and will not bring down overall advertising pricing, certainly points for others to consider when looking ahead.”

Additional DCN insights from the white paper:

Vendor partnerships are important

• Integration with constantly-evolving players in the ad tech stack is what makes building ad technology in-house prohibitive; all interview participants said they are not pursuing internal solutions and will instead rely on vendors.

Learn and grow with the buy side

• Most executives interviewed stressed the need to proactively talk to clients about their programmatic capabilities, as they are often unaware of them or how they can benefit their marketing campaigns.

Enable and incentivize your sales team to embrace programmatic

• Automation will not diminish the importance of sales relationships. Half of those interviewed said they are starting to see large buys that include some programmatic component; therefore, it is important to educate and enable account executives to have conversations about programmatic with clients.

Designate programmatic expert(s) on your team

• Digital content companies interviewed have created new roles for programmatic specialists. Broadly there are two types of functions that programmatic specialists will have to perform: (1) supporting the direct sales team; and (2) managing vendor and platform relationships.

Leverage first-party data and other organizational resources

• Programmatic specialists will need to work closely with engineering, analytics and data science teams to build out data capabilities and products.

“Practical Tips for a Programmatic Future” participants included:

• Jana Meron, Vice President of Programmatic and Data Strategy, Business Insider
• Dave Morris, Chief Revenue Officer, CBS Interactive
• Mike Smith, Vice President, Revenue Platforms and Operations, Hearst Digital Media
• Gina Reduto, Vice President, NBCUx
• Michael Stoeckler, Vice President, Ad Revenue Operations, The New York Times
• Bill Murray, Vice President, Sales Planning and Strategy, Scripps Networks Interactive
• John Kelly, Executive Vice President, New & Digital Sales, Univision
• Ryan Pauley, Executive Director, Revenue Operations, Vox Media
• Steve Stup, Vice President, Advertising Products & Strategy, Washington Post
• Jeremy Hlavacek, Vice President, Programmatic, The Weather Company

Download the “Practical Tips for a Programmatic Future” white paper here.

DCN has experienced approximately 15 percent growth in new members in the past 12 months including Business Insider, The Daily Caller, NewsBeat Social, Newsday, Rodale, Telegraph Media Group, Vocativ, Vox Media and Warner Bros. The organization has also expanded its scope to share additional intelligence and industry findings through its InContext website, public events and research.

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ABOUT DIGITAL CONTENT NEXT

Founded in June 2001 as the Online Publishers Association (OPA), Digital Content Next is the only trade organization dedicated to serving the unique and diverse needs of high-quality digital content companies that manage trusted, direct relationships with consumers and marketers. Comprised of some of the most trusted and well-respected media brands, DCN produces proprietary research for its members and the public, creates public and private forums to explore and advance key issues that impact digital content brands, offers an influential voice that speaks for digital content companies in the press, with advertisers and policy makers, and works to educate the public at large on the importance of quality content brands. More information about Digital Content Next is available at http://www.digitalcontentnext.com.

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Contact: Kaitlyn Kurosky
HIGH10 MEDIA
212 918 2040
[email protected]