By Kayleigh Barber • August 27, 2024 •
Even billionaire-backed media companies are not immune to the challenges facing the media and digital advertising industries.
Last week, 22 staffers were laid off from Time — which is owned by Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff and his wife and philanthropist Lynne Benioff — as part of a larger reduction of operational costs amid ad revenue declines. Cuts were made to the editorial, sales, marketing, technology and TIME Studios teams, according to a memo from CEO Jessica Sibley sent to Time staffers last week that was shared with Digiday. And more cost cutting measures are coming down the pike, including limiting contractors and downsizing its New York headquarters.
At the center of these changes is focusing the company’s editorial and business strategy on its “most commercially successful work” and the “biggest opportunities for growth” at Time, which is its coverage of leadership – particularly in the categories of AI, climate and health — Sibley wrote. That, in part, has played a big role in the transition to the sales team’s B2B revenue strategy.
On the latest episode of the Digiday Podcast (which was recorded on July 22, prior to the layoff announcement), Sibley discusses why she views Time’s B2B revenue strategy as the best path forward for growth, as well as other areas of revenue opportunity, including partnerships with AI technology companies like OpenAI and Perplexity.
Below are highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Leaning into AI negotiations
From a business perspective, I’d say we’ve seen two paths, especially in media with AI. There’s the negotiating path and there’s the litigating path. Some are choosing one, some are choosing the other, and in some cases, some media companies are choosing both. We have decided to negotiate or be part of the AI ecosystem … This is the most exciting, but also disruptive technology, I think, that we’ll ever see in our lifetimes … [And] as the CEO of Time, we want to figure out a way to participate in AI so that we can continue to do what we do and what we’ve done for 100 years.
We want fair value for that if you’re training on our data, and we want that in the past, and we want that going forward. There’s also opportunities to partner with AI companies that are disrupting search as we’ve known it for decades, and we want to be part of the ecosystem so that Time shows up in results in an authoritative, trusted way. That is critically important to be able to maintain trusted journalism and combat misinformation and disinformation in all different formats.
The shift from B2C to B2B
We were very much alone in taking down the paywall, but we felt it was the right thing to do for our brand and our mission and our purpose … You should be able to get Time.com for free. And not just what we’re reporting on today, but information from 100 years [ago], to help inform your understanding of the events around the world.
It was all part of our business decision and resourcing where our best opportunities are, and that’s been, since when I joined at the start, really a shift and a pivot in this business to be a B2B-focused revenue model.
So when I talk about B2B, I mean our direct-sold advertising business … growth in events … [and] strategic partnerships, again rooted in our trusted journalism, working with companies like Statista to build exciting new lists and content focus areas.
The results are in
Our ad revenue has grown. We’ve been able to … really focus on multiplatform, integrated, cross-platform opportunities that we bring directly to our customers, new and existing, to deliver incredible opportunities for them to drive their business. So we’re working with the best blue chip, globally recognized household names that have the biggest brands and the largest budgets, and we’re working directly with them all year long on programs … The results speak for themselves. We’re up 20% and we’re looking at a very strong second half.
https://digiday.com/?p=553597
