Fairfax Media has shaken up its advertising division, after inking a major advertising deal with Google, which will see the American tech giant sell the publisher’s digital ads.
Disclosed in a stock market announcement, Fairfax announced Google will sell and market programmatic across all of its newspapers and sites.
The new deal adds to Fairfax’s existing arrangement, where it sells some digital inventory via Google’s Ad Exchange program.
Fairfax has reportedly confirmed that the deal’s impact on sales jobs will be “none to minimal”, affirming that “there will be redeployments and new opportunities”.
Advertising spending on ‘programmatic deals’ – where ads are bought through automated systems – is tipped to further accelerate.
The media-buying arm of British giant WPP, GroupM, predicts that Google and Facebook will nab 84% of all digital investment this year.
Fairfax states the partnership extends to “optimising publishing technology, digital innovation, driving digital subscriptions growth, and extending Fairfax’s use of data”.
From next year, Fairfax’s commercial team will also work with Google across premium ad products, commercial solutions and key client relationships.
Fairfax Managing Director of Australian Metro Publishing, Chris Janz, describes the new deal as a “big step forward” for Fairfax Media:
“We are excited to be deepening our partnership with Google, providing advertisers with a new way to work with Fairfax”.
Meanwhile, Fairfax Chief Executive, Greg Hywood affirms that the arrangement will allow the company to make new investments in journalism:
“This partnership cements Fairfax’s place at the global forefront of digital publishing innovation, having rebuilt our publishing technology from the ground up”
“We are stepping up and understanding the future. We are ensuring our company, our media and our shareholders benefit from commercial opportunities available to us.
“We expect upside performance from this partnership will allow us to make new investment in our journalism”.
