Native advertising helped save us, says Sound Alliance publisher

Sound Alliance owner and content director Tim Duggan has revealed the independent publisher would probably have folded without the growth of native advertising.

He told a conference in Sydney yesterday that content marketing now accounts for 30 per cent of its revenue, up from 20 per cent last year. Two years ago it was zero, Duggan said.

Speaking on a panel of independent online publishers that also included The Hoopla co-founder Wendy Harmer and The Mandarin publisher Tom Burton, he said the rise of mobile presented a major hurdle for the company’s portfolio of music sites which had been designed for desktops.

Until then the company was surviving on display banner advertising.