snap cap: as snap inc. sets the wheels in motion for an initial public offering, it wants to change the way it pays publishers who participate in snapchat discover, its product launched in 2015 that features content from media companies like cosmopolitan, tastemade and vice. rather than continue to share the ad revenue with publishers, the social media company said it would rather pay content partners a flat license fee up front and pocket all the ad dollars , recode reports. the move offers publishers a steady revenue stream for investing in creating snapchat content, but essentially caps the amount of money they can make on the app. for snapchat, the new arrangement would mean full control over its ad inventory. snapchat is also looking to extend the financial terms to companies in talks to create content for its new short-form video offering called <u+201c>snapchat shows.<u+201d> still, the benefit for publishers, beyond getting their own brand in front of millions of users, would become a licensing fee, not ad revenue. all in the family: the new york times named 36-year-old arthur gregg <u+201c>a.g.<u+201d> sulzberger as deputy publisher , positioning him to succeed his father as publisher and chairman of the company. he was one of three cousins in the running to become heir apparent. if he<u+2019>s eventually elevated to publisher, he would be the fifth generation of the family to serve in that role. mr. sulzberger had led the team that drafted the paper<u+2019>s 2014 <u+201c>innovation report<u+201d> and since july 2015 he has been associate editor for strategy, helping to lead the newsroom<u+2019>s continued digital transformation. as the new york times reports, his elevation comes at a time of anxiety in the newsroom with a downsizing expected next year as the industry overall struggles to replace plunging print ad sales with digital and mobile revenue. dow jones & co., which includes the wall street journal, has similarly been struggling with a volatile ad market. as wsj reports, dow jones told union representatives this week that its plans to restructure its operations. that could include a possible reduction in head count across dow jones, as the company also considers other cost-reduction options such as combining or eliminating sections, according to people familiar with the matter. election clouds: before the end of the year, marketers tend to dig into their couches to find dollars they didn<u+2019>t realize they had<u+2014>an annual habit that makes it tough for their ad agencies to predict just how much last-minute project business they<u+2019>ll be able to drum up. this year, that kind of unpredictability, met with a presidential election unlike any other, is creating even more uncertainty for agencies that live and die by client business. omnicom ceo john wren said during the company<u+2019>s third-quarter earnings call that a <u+201c>very unusual year with the presidential election<u+201d> is adding to a <u+201c>general conservatism,<u+201d> making the outlook for this quarter murky, reports cmo today. the election itself also provided less business for the group in the third quarter compared with past elections since republicans aren<u+2019>t spending as much as democrats, said mr. wren. the republican national committee hasn't spent a penny on commercials to get trump elected , reports politico. the trump campaign only recently committed to ad spending, having relied on the candidate<u+2019>s media prowess. machine madness: what do you do when you don<u+2019>t have enough reporters to cover the news event of the year? if you<u+2019>re the washington post trying to cover nearly 500 contests on election day, the strategy is homegrown artificial intelligence, reports cmo today. the post is looking to automate some of its news coverage with a data-crunching program called heliograf , which will be able to automatically update some stories, even adding some analysis. the idea is to bolster the post<u+2019>s team of 60 political reporters as the paper attempts to cover every house, senate and gubernatorial race in the country. the post first experimented with heliograf to cover events at the summer olympics, but it isn<u+2019>t the first news outlet to try its hand at automated journalism. the ap in 2014 began using automated technology to produce some earnings stories. and financial news startup money.net, which has been building a lower-cost version of bloomberg terminals, just tapped bloomberg and time inc. vet norman pearlstine to build an automated news service . millions will be tuning in for wednesday night<u+2019>s debate as donald trump and hillary clinton face off for a third and final time before the election. fox news anchor chris wallace will mark the network<u+2019>s first journalist to moderate such a general election showdown. [ nyt ] sony, facebook and google are among the companies that have placed their bets on virtual reality, but marketers have been slower to jump into the fray. still, brands like pepsi and toyota said at this week<u+2019>s virtual reality 2020 summit that they know they need to start experimenting with the format. [ cmo today ] disney may have pulled out of its bid for buy twitter due to concerns that bullying and other untoward communication on the site could tarnish its wholesome family image. meanwhile, it turns out that salesforce, which also recently dropped out of the running for twitter, didn<u+2019>t even have the social giant on its original list of possible acquisition targets only months earlier. [ bloomberg , wsj ] yahoo reported a slight rise in usage of its email product since disclosing a massive data breach. but while earnings and its fourth-quarter outlook topped expectations, yahoo still has a core advertising business that continues to deteriorate ahead of the closing of its sale to verizon. [ wsj ] the daily news has appointed editorial veteran arthur browne as its new editor in chief a year after tapping jim rich for the role. [ politico ] comedian harry shearer alleges he was slighted out of years of profits from <u+201c>this is spinal tap,<u+201d> the cult classic he helped create and starred in. he filed a lawsuit seeking $125 million in damages from vivendi, which controls the film<u+2019>s rights, and its subsidiary. [ wsj ] google updated its survey product, which now allows marketers and publishers to target surveys to specific groups of users who have previously been exposed to certain content or taken specific actions. [ cmo today ] 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: snapchat wants to keep ad revenue from discover - wsj
alexandra bruell