Matomy Seeks IPO; Print Is The New Digital

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Performance IPO

Is it another programmatic IPO? Performance marketing company Matomy has decided it’s ready for an initial public offering and will seek to raise $100 million on the London Stock Exchange, according to the FT. The Israel-based company “generated revenues of $194m in 2013, up from $120m in 2012 and $107m in 2011,” according to the FT, which compares Matomy to Criteo and Rocket Fuel. Read more (subscription). Globes says Matomy will be worth around $500 million after the offering.

Back To Print

Print revenues are declining rapidly, but that isn’t stopping some online publishers from launching magazines (or relaunching, if you’re Newsweek). As Digiday reports, Politico, Pitchfork and Pando all plan on launching premium magazines with low subscription numbers and high prices. “Having a subscription-based magazine made for a specific audience is a sensible, almost predictably boring business,” said Paul Carr, investigations editor for Pando. ”In pure economic terms, selling a magazine like this is no more of risk than making t-shirts.” Read on.

Still More Native

The Wall Street Journal is the next mainstream publication to try out native advertising, according to a press release. The sponsored content will be created through WSJ Custom Studios and will be clearly differentiated from editorial content, according to the publisher. “Smart brands are creating compelling stories. They are not getting into the news business, but are getting into the storytelling business,” said SVP Raju Narisetti of News Corp in a Q&A on the Dow Jones site.

Advertisers Buying Ad Tech

Priceline Group has acquired Israel-based ad targeting startup Qlika, according to Re/code, for around $3 million. This move will help Priceline focus its online travel ad campaigns in local markets. Read the rest.

Digital Age Branding

Subway’s chief marketing officer, Tony Pace, offers some marketing insights to The Wall Street Journal. He recommends marketers stay creative, balance the long and short term and learn how to turn data into insights. “Everybody is chasing the new technologies all the time, but you have to remember that the long-established benchmarks of marketing remain the same despite the fact the channels are different,” Pace said. Read more (subscription).

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The Price Isn’t Always Right; AI Companies Start Raising Standards

Dial Up The Frequency

According to Acxiom, less is not necessarily more with online display ads. A white paper finds people who see a display ad fewer than 10 times are unlikely to be influenced to purchase. There are also some harsh words here for ad tech intermediaries. “It’s not necessary to use any advertising technology other than what the publisher provides to get a great return on advertising. All the campaigns we looked at were run using direct buys from publishers sold at normal rates. No remnant inventory. The difference was that the ads were shown only to people identified by Acxiom and uploaded to the publisher.” More here. And download the white paper.

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