Why the Pivot to Video Will Prevail

Opinion: It’s no different than the shift from print to radio, and then from radio to TV

There’s been some negative buzz in recent months around publishers’ shift to distributed content—and particularly, video ad spending on Facebook. Numerous articles, citing anonymous sources and utilizing mysterious methodology, point to monetization woes, shrinking returns and writer layoffs.

But is that the full story? Is it a problem with the platforms? Are Google and Facebook dominating too much of the ecosystem? Is it the fault of traditional journalists who can’t keep pace in the new world order of video? Or is it that a few relatively new players have been able to scale to billions of views so rapidly that it breeds distrust?

I contend that Facebook and other major platforms like Google are, in fact, ideal content-discovery mechanisms that publishers should be exploring seriously and leveraging heavily despite this wave of press pessimism.

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