Publishers exchange in doubt as News Corp confirms exit
The future of the so-called publisher’s exchange deal is in doubt after News Corp Australia today confirmed to Mumbrella it is pulling out of the joint venture with some of its closest rivals.
The exchange was set to be a joint venture between four of Australia’s largest publishers News, Fairfax, Mi9 and Yahoo!7, as they looked to take on the might of Google’s programatic buying offering and wrest precious ad dollars from the search giant.
News’ decision to pull out of the deal is thought to come from the changed market conditions since it was first mooted, which include the arrival of UK news outlet the Mail Online, which has struck a joint-venture with Mi9 and looks set to become one of the biggest news websites in the country. It is understood News’ reluctance to commit to the exchange had been a major hold-up in its arrival.
In recent days News has also lost its head of commercial development Jason Barnes and director of commercial and product development Les Wigan who is heading to Fox Sports. The pair were leading the key figures on the publishers exchange. A spokesman for News Corp confirmed the departure and said no replacements had been named.
