currency dreams: ad buyers and sellers have fantasized about a common metric to accurately capture viewership and serve as a currency in ad deals across linear tv, video-on-demand and mobile screens. but lyle schwartz, groupm<u+2019>s new president of investment, thinks that 2017 may finally be the year <u+201c>when we can buy programs across the devices ,<u+201d> he told variety. <u+201c>i can tell you the technological capability could be available for next year<u+2019>s upfront,<u+201d> he said. for the networks, a common metric could help prove that a dip in linear tv viewership doesn<u+2019>t necessarily mean a dip in overall viewership, as more people find new ways to watch their favorite shows. as variety points out, cbs chief executive leslie moonves thinks nielsen<u+2019>s new total audience ratings may help the cause. (of course, a unified metric also could prove the opposite - that, in fact, some of the audience simply has stopped watching tv on any platform.) if anyone can convince networks and digital media companies to adopt a new common metric, it<u+2019>s probably mr. schwartz, whose parent wpp influences the spending of approximately $30 billion in advertising from blue-chip marketers. breitbart<u+2019>s advalanche: brands continue to distance themselves from the controversial conservative site breitbart news. the latest move came from kellogg, which announced plans to pull its ads from the site , bloomberg reports. the company decided to nix breitbart from the list of websites where its ads appear after being contacted by customers who saw frosted flakes and frosted mini wheats ads, said kris charles, a spokeswoman for kellogg. the cereal and snack-food company joins the likes of allstate, nest, earthlink , warby parker and sofi -- all of which also blacklisted breitbart from showing their ads , according to digiday. separately, digital ad specialist appnexus also has barred breitbart from using its ad-serving tools. breitbart has been under considerable scrutiny since former chairman steve bannon, who helped run donald trump<u+2019>s campaign, was tapped to be the president-elect<u+2019>s chief strategist in the white house. a new media co: trust in journalism is low thanks in part to a <u+201c> fake news<u+201d> epidemic . politico co-founder and former ceo jim vandehei and mike allen, the founder of its playbook newsletter, want to change that. the media moguls announced their plans for a new media company called axios, which comes with the mission statement: <u+201c>media is broken<u+2014>and too often a scam ,<u+201d> vanity fair reports. as cmo today reported in september, mr. vandehei had secured $10 million in financing for the creation of a media outlet targeting corporate executives, with a mix of business and political news. it also secured backing from comcast<u+2019>s nbc news unit. mr. vandehei thinks too many media companies have fallen into the <u+201c>crap trap<u+201d> in an effort to drive traffic, vanity fair says. his plan for axios is to avoid that and take the best of the <u+201c>economist mated with twitter.<u+201d> back to startup: business insider chief operating officer and president julie hansen joined the digital media company as its fifth employee in 2008, when it was only a startup, and helped founders henry blodget and kevin ryan build the company into one of the most well-trafficked business news outlets online. now she<u+2019>s leaving a much larger media conglomerate to go back to a startup , cmo today reports. her departure comes a little over a year after german media company axel springer acquired most of business insider for $343 million. although she<u+2019>s a seasoned media vet -- ms. hansen previously worked as a senior vice president for ncaa.com and an executive director for conde nast -- her next gig will not be in the media space, according to wsj. u.s. cable company altice plans to convert all its systems into a fiber network within the next five years, pitting the fourth-largest u.s. cable operator against rival verizon<u+2019>s fios. [ wsj ] today co-host matt lauer has extended his contract with nbc through at least 2018, and it<u+2019>s costing the network only $20 million a year. #pocketchange. [ new york post ] facebook may not be making tons of money from gaming just yet, but its new instant games product, which integrates free games in the user<u+2019>s newsfeed and messenger without launching separate apps or pages, will be key in keeping people on facebook longer and attracting advertisers. [ wsj ] at&t<u+2019>s new tv streaming service, directv now, will be capable of providing advertising inventory in video-on-demand for 64 channels. [ ad age ] tubemogul had many suitors, including a <u+201c>social media<u+201d> company and a <u+201c>foreign telecom<u+201d> one, before adobe agreed to buy the advertising technology company earlier this month. who said ad techs are struggling ? [ adexchanger ] sintecmedia, an israel-based software company that helps media companies manage their advertising operations, has agreed to acquire media software company operative media inc. [ cmo today ] the department of culture, media and sports in the u.k. told buzzfeed that it<u+2019>s looking into the current fake news frenzy that has swept across social media. [ buzzfeed ] twitter will live stream a q&a with the cast of <u+201c>rogue one: a star wars story<u+201d> on friday as it continues to position itself as a platform for live content viewing. [ techcrunch ] follow us on twitter: @wsjcmo , @digitalshields , @vranicawsj , @jackmarshall , @perlberg , @alexbruell , @srabil , @asharma subscribe to our morning newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox, at http://on.wsj.com/cmotodaysignup . write to alexandra bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com
cmo today: is 2017 the year of the common media currency? - wsj
alexandra bruell