In an email to the staff, executive editor and vice president of product Zach Seward and director of marketing and revenue products Mia Mabanta explained:
Make sure to check out this piece about cultural appropriation in fashion that published today. The video on top is the first to run in our new in-house video player. It’s beautiful, fast, and integrates advertising in a brand new way.
Just as the video team’s work has tried to push boundaries and explore new opportunities, so too with this video player. It does not get in the user’s way with an annoying pre-roll ad; instead, the advertiser’s video is part of the overall experience.
While we’ve chosen to abstain from pre-roll, we’re not naive to the challenges of making money from video. Advertisers’ video budgets have thus far favored reach and forced views. Our conviction is that there is value in genuine user engagement.
Check out the new video ad experience here. You’ll notice a thumbnail-sized, looping animation of the sponsor video in the bottom-right corner. When the user hovers over this, the thumbnail expands to fill the entire screen and the full sponsor video begins playing. Meanwhile, the editorial video pauses in the background.
To return to the editorial video, simply move the cursor again for the video to shrink back to thumbnail size.
The first video ad is from Lincoln Motor Co.
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