I set out as an entrepreneur four years ago to change the world of journalism and build a digital business. During my journey I kept a few quotes locked in my mind. This one is from Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal's former CEO. "Our challenge with all these [digital] ventures is to effectively monetize them so that we do not end up trading analog dollars for digital pennies." Every three months 1.1 trillion banners (or display ads) are served across the Internet. That's 150,000 every second. Publishers sell many at CPMs (the cost per thousand impressions) ranging from $10 to $20-$50 for video, if they're lucky. Ad networks sell the inventory they aggregate from publishers for $3 to $5. Programmatic audience buying (think trading desks) has pushed bids for a single impression to as low as 1/100 of a cent. It's all a far cry from the price of an ad in a magazine or newspaper.
展开▼
