Why Publishers are Learning How to Buy Ads

By: Lucia Moses | Digiday

Publishers are used to spending an inordinate amount of energy trying to attract media buyers, but now they’re also playing the role themselves.

Publishers like Vox Media, BuzzFeed and Complex all have in-house ad-buying capability, part of a shift by publishers in how they think of audience development. Gone is the “build it and they will come” ethos, Instead, publishers are resorting to the brass tacks of building audiences through a variety of methods, including paying for distribution of content.