CMO Today: Fox News Enters the Post-O’Reilly Era

O’REILLY OUT: In less than a year, Fox News’s three biggest stars have exited. First Roger Ailes. Then Megyn Kelly. And now, in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal, Bill O’Reilly is out, reports The Wall Street Journal. Starting Monday, Tucker Carlson will move into Mr. O’Reilly’s 8 p.m. time slot and “The Five” will appear at 9 p.m. The changes come weeks after the New York Times reported that 21st Century Fox or Mr. O’Reilly settled with five women accusing him of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment. More than 50 advertisers responded by pulling their ads, and from there, pressure mounted. Mr. O’Reilly said Fox’s decision to part ways was based on “completely unfounded claims,” reports Variety. In a memo to staffers, Fox Co-Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his sons emphasized their commitment to a “work environment built on the values of trust and respect,” while also praising Mr. O’Reilly as “one of the most accomplished TV personalities in the history of cable news.” CNN’s Chris Cillizza summed up Mr. O’Reilly’s legacy, calling him the “front-facing spokesman” for modern conservatism who helped make populism and distrust of the mainstream media core tenets of the movement that eventually put Donald Trump in the White House. The Times’s Jim Rutenberg echoed that theme and said the ouster of Mr. O’Reilly will test the loyalties of Fox News viewers. 21st Century Fox and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.

Read more:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cmo-today-cmo-today-fox-news-enters-the-post-oreilly-era-1492689635

The Economist adopts time-based ad sales

The Economist is ready to move beyond the impression and bet heavily on user attention-based selling as the future.

The publisher, which operates a hybrid subscription and ad-funded business model, is offering marketers globally the ability to buy readers’ attention in-app and online, on a cost-per-hour (CPH) basis. The move follows the Financial Times’ adoption of time-based selling in early 2015.

“Viewability doesn’t provide attention. It is a proxy for quality. The next step in the evolution of media buying is trading attention,” Ashwin Sridhar, global head of digital products revenue at The Economist, told Digiday.

The publisher’s “attention buy” model will see it charge advertisers only for display ad impressions — it doesn’t yet extend to video, but that will come later — that generate over five seconds of “active” view time. Scrolling up and down a page, typing on a keyboard or using the mouse will all count as active reader behaviors. It will work with analytics partners Chartbeat and Moat Analytics to make it happen.

Read more: https://digiday.com/media/economist-adopts-time-based-ad-sales/