Condé Nast and the soon-to-be-sold Verizon Media have struck a partnership that will see the publisher of Vogue and GQ produce videos for Yahoo sites.
The partnership is Verizon Media’s first major announcement since its parent company Verizon announced the sale of its media and ad-tech business to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.
Condé Nast brands including Glamour and Vanity Fair will soon create video content for the Life and Entertainment verticals of Yahoo’s digital properties, allowing Condé Nast to reach more people and providing Yahoo with much-needed online video inventory—a proliferating ad channel.
In return, Verizon Media’s ad-tech unit will build products to further Condé Nast’s monetization efforts. This deal will see video and native ad inventory from Condé Nast sites available within Verizon Media’s supply-side platform.
Craig Kostelic, chief business officer of U.S. advertising revenue and head of global ad solutions at Condé Nast, said the company is looking to work with “fewer, bigger” partners that offer more than selling remnant inventory.
“The core of the partnership is: How are they providing commercial products and ad tech for our direct sales capability, whether it’s programmatic guaranteed or private marketplaces, and then how can they also supplement that opportunity with more of the holistic monetization from their own demand perspective as well,” said Kostelic.
Over the last several years, the two companies had a more passive relationship in which Verizon Media would essentially pull from Condé Nast’s library of content. Talks to create a more proactive partnership picked up in November, Kostelic said, before Verizon Media’s agreed sale to Apollo was announced.
Iván Markman, chief business officer at Verizon Media, said the company (which will rebrand as Yahoo upon completion of the sale) will be “accelerating our strategy” under Apollo. For media, that means focusing on areas like gaming, betting, ecommerce and premium subscriptions. For ad tech, that means investing in omnichannel offerings and building out its post-third-party cookie identity products.
“We’re an $8 billion business unit in a $140 billion company, and Verizon has made a massive bet in 5G, and for us to scale to a next level, we’re also going to be investing,” said Markman. “We control our own destiny.” (Verizon had consolidated operating revenues of $128.3 billion in 2020.)
Verizon Media will also look to sign similar deals with other publishers, Markman said. Along with pushing video inventory, Condé Nast and Verizon Media will co-create shoppable content and immersive web experiences.
“When you think about categories like beauty and food and fashion, there’s a ton of opportunity to connect content to commerce,” said Markman.
