The Boston Globe’s first homegrown piece of sponsored content.
The Boston Globe on Wednesday became the latest newspaper to begin offering sponsored content, part of an industry-wide turn toward diversified digital advertising in the face of continued contraction of print revenue.
The advertisement, a 1,000-plus word story paid for by Rockland Trust, chronicles the lives of two small business owners financed by the Massachusetts commercial bank. A bright red label that reads “Sponsored by Rockland Trust” distinguishes the advertisement from the rest of the content on The Globe’s homepage, and a note alerts readers that the piece was not created by Globe journalists.
Today’s ad, which appears in the flow of The Globe’s editorial content, marks the beginning of the company’s push to integrate sponsored content into its digital offerings. It’s a move that has been in the works since the Globe hired former Boston Herald Managing Editor Andrew Gully to head up its sponsored content this April and announced that the ads would be “a very important part of our growth.”
Since Gully was hired, Boston Globe Media has lined up about 100 pieces of sponsored content from a variety of advertisers, said Mike Sheehan, the CEO of the company. He anticipates that the ads, which he says will be clearly distinguished from the company’s journalism, will become “a big business line” for Boston Globe Media. The draw for businesses, Sheehan says, is that sponsored content allows advertisers to offer personal testimonials about their brands in ways that defy traditional advertising.
“You can runs ads that say it, or you can actually demonstrate it,” Sheehan said. “And sponsored content is a way of demonstrating that you’re a great partner.”
In offering sponsored content, The Globe joins a host of news organizations — most of them large newspapers and magazines — who are turning to native advertisements and the comparatively high rates they command. Hearst Newspapers, which owns several regional publications throughout the United States, has installed advertising agencies at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Houston Chronicle in an attempt to reach clients seeking high-touch advertising and marketing services. National brands such as The Washington Post and The New York Times have debuted similar ventures, as have magazine companies like Condé Nast and Time Inc.
Boston Globe Media is starting small, but plans to scale its operation up to meet demands, Sheehan said. For now, Gully is running the business with help from the company’s marketing team and developers. If business proves brisk, the Globe will hire additional staffers and adopt an agency model.
“There are a lot of very big advertisers who are dissatisfied with their traditional agencies because they can’t work at the pace of journalism,” Sheehan said. “The metabolism of a newspaper is completely different, and that’s why picked Andrew to run it.”
