Fortune's tech advertising up 35 percent this year

One of the benefits of folding Business 2.0 has been an increase in tech advertising in Fortune magazine, writes David Kaplan of PaidContent.org.

Kaplan wrote, “But Vivek Shah, president, Fortune/Money Group says that the move has already started to pay off. Following his appearance on a panel at the Magazine Publishers Association’s 24/7 Digital Media conference, Shah told me that Fortune’s technology advertising category is up 35 percent year-over-year. Shah, who spent five years as general manager of The Fortune/Money Group (then called the Time Inc.’s Business/Finance unit before being restructured in September), noted that another feature of the division’s changes has also helped it weather the challenges faced in the financial advertising category.

“‘We took the brand publisher roles out a few years ago and then reinstated them this past year. That has led to bookings being up at our magazines this past year in a pretty difficult environment, as the business/financial category is a difficult category right now.’ Some of the other issues we discussed included:

— Video growth: It wasn’t the sudden competition from Fox Business News that spurred the the unit to pursue video more aggressively for CNNMoney.com, Shah said. Either way, he told me, the timing has been right. ‘The number of streams we’re doing per month is growing fast. In January, after launching on the 15th, we did seven million; in February, we’re on pace to do twice that. According to Nielsen, the average viewer spent 45 minutes watching videos at CNN/Money.com. There isn’t a lot of inventory in this category, so that also makes us a little more attractive to advertisers.'”

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