What you need to know in advertising today
Once high-flying Mic raised $60 million to build a media company to target millennials, but it sold to Bustle Media Group for a reported $5 million. The deal struck resemblance to another new-media darling Mashable that sold at this time a year ago for about $40 million, one fifth of its onetime value.
Now, the buzz is that other investor-backed companies such as Refinery29, Vox Media, and Vice Media might look for an exit. Refinery29 and Vice said they're not for sale. Vox said it would evaluate opportunities to "acquire or partner" with companies in 2019.
To read more about how Mic's sale has the media business buzzing with rumors of potential deals, click here.
In other news:
Sir Martin Sorrell says the advertising industry reminds him of Burning Man, and should embrace 'radical change.' The spirit of creative disruption that characterizes Burning Man is akin to the changes sweeping through the advertising industry today, Sir Martin Sorrell said at Business Insider's IGNITION Conference.
The president of media giant Turner says content is still king, but television needs to evolve. David Levy said television needs to be rethought as people increasingly view shows on all kinds of devices, and that the AT&T-Time Warner deal will help Turner better serve viewers with better ads, he said.
'We are trying to build that direct audience': Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine is more focused on building audiences than scale. Sarah Harden, president of Reese Witherspoon's media brand Hello Sunshine, also said it has projects in the works for Apple, Hulu and Amazon.
'The live TV market is robust': Hulu CEO Randy Freer talks about accelerating subscriber growth and profitability at the company. Hulu will add more subscribers in the second half of the year than it did in the first half, CEO Randy Freer said at IGNITION.
Roku users are streaming nearly 3 hours a day on average, and the most-searched term is for 'free' content. Roku executive Scott Rosenberg was interviewed Tuesday at Business Insider's IGNITION 2018 conference about his role in driving the company's advertising revenue.
Blavity startup cofounder Aaron Samuels has raised $8.5 million spoke at IGNITION about what he has to do to get his company to the next step, and why he's 'terrified.'
'We still need to make search and discovery much better:' Etsy is banking on tech and marketing to catch up with Amazon. 18 months since becoming Etsy's CEO, Josh Silverman has turned Etsy's stock around by restructuring the company and cutting departments like Etsy Studio, a 150-person team that focused on craft supplies.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg explains the company's massive reorganization. The company is now comprised of Verizon Consumer Group, Verizon Business Group, and Verizon Media Group.