A new publishing company - Õhtuleht Kirjastus - was born in June when two of Estonia’s influential publishers reached a merger agreement. New CEO Erik Heinsaar, who at 28 is the youngest CEO in Estonian publishing business, explains how this huge and diverse portfolio of titles will find synergies and growth.

Brands who still haven’t tapped into native advertising should seriously consider doing so, says Andre Alpar, digital marketing strategist. But you have to start out simple.

Each year the sessions at the DIS (Digital Innovators’ Summit) address many of the key issues that are focusing the minds of execs in the publishing industry.

The most innovative case studies for making money through data- and AI-driven initiatives at media companies will be key topics at the 8^th Big Data & AI for Media Week events in London from 28 October to 2 November.

2018 might have been a challenging year for its parent company Facebook, but for Instagram it has largely been business as usual. The image/video based platform has posted excellent traffic and revenue figures and has continued to establish itself as one of the social media channels of choice for Generation Z.

Condé Nast today announced a new partnership between the company’s US and UK Condé Nast Traveller teams to create one editorial platform in 2019. The media company will integrate its editorial and commercial capabilities across print and digital. 

There is now only one month left before the 6^th FIPP Asia conference, taking place in Wuhan, China from 14-15 September. If you have not booked your place yet, we suggest you do so today to join us and colleagues from China and beyond there.

Over the years, increasing numbers of executives from the media and technology sectors attend DIS (Digital Innovators’ Summit), the premium summit of its kind in Europe. Today we are offering you the chance to save a whopping €800 on final delegate rates with our DIS2019 launch offer. The 12th edition of DIS takes place on 25-26 March 2019 in Berlin, Germany.

The most innovative case studies for making money through data- and AI-driven initiatives at media companies will be key topics at the 8^th Big Data & AI for Media Week events in London from 28 October to 2 November.

There is now only one month left before the 6^th FIPP Asia conference, taking place in Wuhan, China from 14-15 September. If you have not booked your place yet, we suggest you do so today to join us and colleagues from China and beyond there.

The Big Data & AI for Media team interviewed Arvid Tchivzhel, director of product development and data science for Mather Economics, Atlanta, USA, about their “Listener Intelligent Paywall” technology.

UPM, the Biofore Company, and FIPP, the network for global media, have signed a strategic brand partnership agreement running through 2018 and 2019, including the 42nd FIPP World Media Congress taking place in November 2019.

Data- and AI-driven projects, processes and strategies are emerging as the media industry's most innovative business practices. Enter your company's data- and AI-driven leading edge work in the 2018 BIGGIES Awards competition for the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.

Our discounted pre-agenda rate for the 6^th FIPP Asia conference in China ends today, 30 July. Save on final rates by signing up for your delegate pass before then.

A new publishing company - Õhtuleht Kirjastus - was born in June when two of Estonia’s influential publishers reached a merger agreement. New CEO Erik Heinsaar, who at 28 is the youngest CEO in Estonian publishing business, explains how this huge and diverse portfolio of titles will find synergies and growth.

2018 might have been a challenging year for its parent company Facebook, but for Instagram it has largely been business as usual. The image/video based platform has posted excellent traffic and revenue figures and has continued to establish itself as one of the social media channels of choice for Generation Z.

Women influence auto purchases, yet most feel alienated by car companies. TI Media has set out to change this. 

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) is a not-for-profit industry self-regulatory programme, established to tackle criminal activity in digital advertising. We caught up with Nick Stringer, VP of global engagement and operations for TAG and former director of regulatory affairs for IAB UK, to find out more about the initiative and how it is physically being implemented on the ground. 

“It’s a huge population and a very affluent audience. They actually have more spendable income and more money. In the beauty space, it’s completely underserved, so when you think about it, to me, it’s an amazing opportunity to speak to women who are hungry to have this kind of information. No one is really intelligently speaking to them, so that is a strong business reason.” - Agnes Chapski on why Baby Boomers and Gen Xer’s are so important to NewBeauty

The world’s best brand magazines learnt early on not to push their products, but rather rely on the merits and value of content to engage readers. Today, they are getting even better at it.

Apple becomes a trillion dollar company, Google hit with EUR€4.3bn (US$5bn) EU fine, Facebook and Twitter experience historic losses - it's another month in media tech trends!

HarperCollins Publishers has acquired world all-language rights to Christmas with Good Housekeeping. The book will be published on 18th October 2018.

Exponent today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Dennis Publishing. Dennis is the first investment to be made from Exponent’s fourth fund, Exponent Private Equity Partners IV, LP.

European commercial printing group Walstead today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire LSC Communications' European printing business based in Poland ("LSC Poland"). The transaction is subject to customary completion conditions, adjustments and regulatory approval.

Future, the specialist media platform, announced the proposed acquisition of the consumer division of Purch, the digital publishing and marketplace platform, operating in the consumer technology and science verticals.

On 29 June 2018, the Belgian Competition Authority (BMA)  approved the acquisition of the Sanoma brands by Roularta Media Group, enabling completion of the deal.

Uzabase announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire Quartz, the global business news outlet created and owned by Atlantic Media. The anticipated deal values Quartz between US$75 and $110 million depending on achievement of future financial and operating performance in 2018.

With ongoing discussions about social media’s role in the spread of fake news and hate speech, user awareness about the responsibility of tech giants to manage these problems also rise. 

Brands who still haven’t tapped into native advertising should seriously consider doing so, says Andre Alpar, digital marketing strategist. But you have to start out simple.

Each year the sessions at the DIS (Digital Innovators’ Summit) address many of the key issues that are focusing the minds of execs in the publishing industry.

Every couple of years a new platform comes around and once it reaches a certain degree of popularity, marketers, advertisers and publishers have no choice but to adapt to the new reality.

People spend a lot of time on social media but it's not to watch commercials. So how do brand marketers reach those people? The Native Advertising Institute asked Hannah Meium, former director of content at DDB.

Facebook is no longer part of the holy trinity of online platforms used amongst US teens as a study from the Pew Research Center shows. 

There is one crucial thing we always forget when we are creating good local native advertising, says Ricki Petrini, head of content studio at Mediekompaniet – a media company representing 76 media houses in Sweden. Because, when creating local native advertising, simply just geotargeting is not enough.

I’ll let you in on a secret – I’m tired of hearing about artificial intelligence.

In the summer of 2008, I wrote an article for the magazine of the Custom Publishing Council called “Content.” And while I realise that was 10 years ago, some things never age, such as the content of the “Content” article. That’s a lot of “content” you might say, and I agree with you. But content, good content combined with experience making, is what magazines are all about and custom publishing is still just as relevant and prevalent as it was in ’08, even more so.

A UK Government investigation into the sustainability of ‘high-quality journalism’ has released a rather depressing snapshot of the state of regional newspapers across the country.

At first glance it’s not immediately apparent that the Advertising Standards Authority mantra –‘legal, honest, decent and truthful’ – is relevant to today’s premium publishing world. It’s advertisers, publishers might argue, that should take their share of the blame for the mess that is today’s online publishing environment.

Is my six-year-old nephew smarter than the media industry? It’s a ridiculous and somewhat surprising question to be asking myself after a weekend playing in Battersea Park and watching the Lion King with my little nephews. The question you are probably asking yourself is am I the modern-day version of Simba’s uncle, Scar – by inflicting such an emotional rollercoaster of a film on such young children?

We humans thrive on information. The new, the interesting, the useful and the entertaining all have a seductive power to engage our curious brains and help us make the intelligent decisions that have enabled our species to succeed. 

I was reading an amusing article in This is Money over the weekend that I suspect many mothers and fathers (and grand-parents) will understand. Nothing is more fatal to parental authority than having to ask the offspring for computer help.