DistroScale And Local Media Consortium Enter Into Native Content Platform Agreement

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Local Media Consortium (LMC), a nationwide alliance of local media outlets, and pioneering native content technology company DistroScale have formed an agreement that will offer LMC members preferred access to DistroScale's native content marketplace.

The agreement puts a scalable, measureable native content and advertising solution in immediate reach of Local Media Consortium members. The LMC represents more than 55 media companies and includes more than 1,200 local news outlets in top markets across the United States and Puerto Rico. LMC has an audience footprint of more than 450 monthly million unique visitors (aggregate), and LMC member companies serve more than 4.4 billion monthly page views.

The agreement doubles the number of high quality news, information and entertainment web and mobile properties that may participate in DistroScale's publisher marketplace, and bolsters the content in vertical categories such as automotive and travel.

DistroScale's native content marketplace allows participating brands and publishers a way to buy, plan, and execute native content marketing campaigns in an efficient, measurable and scalable way. Publishers participating in DistroScale's content marketplace can host content marketing campaigns for marketers seeking both brand engagement and awareness and also more performance-based campaigns. The system allows publishers to establish their own unique rules for how to display native content.

"The best way for brands to connect to consumers is to put those brands in the center of something that audiences find valuable. That's why brands are excited about content marketing, and in particular, with DistroScale's approach.  We're like advertising, only better:  marketers can plan, buy, execute and measure native content with our platform, at scale, to a select group of top publishers," said DistroScale CEO and Founder Navdeep Saini. "We are thrilled to work with LMC member companies, we welcome them to our marketplace and look forward to connecting them with brands seeking to engage local audiences via quality storytelling."

LMC member companies may now join an existing base of more than 600 different U.S.-based web and mobile properties already participating in DistroScale's marketplace.

"The DistroScale platform is a powerful tool for our local media companies, many of whom are already working on providing local and national brands with dynamic content marketing opportunities," said Christian A. Hendricks, Chair of the Local Media Consortium's Executive Committee and Vice President, Interactive Media for The McClatchy Company. "We look forward to working with DistroScale to help advertisers tell their stories and provide our audience with compelling branded content."

DistroScale was founded last year by executives who built innovative digital advertising networks and distribution platforms for display, search, rich media and mobile at Yahoo!, DoubleClick and Glam Media (now known as Mode Media). They developed DistroScale's native content marketplace in response to a growing demand from brands, agencies and publishers for a comprehensive solution that could deliver, manage and measure native, brand-sponsored content across multiple publishers and spanning platforms including the Web, mobile, tablets and Apps.

Publishers who are participating in DistroScale's marketplace can now offer marketers a range of native content solutions; ranging from brands seeking awareness and engagement to marketers with performance-based objectives or direct-response requirements. Publishers can set unique rules and standards within the DistroScale platform to govern how native, sponsored content is displayed and distinguished from traditional editorial content.

And, unlike many digital display advertising initiatives that take the audiences out of the publishers' environment, DistroScale allows media companies to offer brand-supported and generated content within its editorial well. To date, DistroScale has worked with brands ranging from McDonald's and Lincoln Motor Company to National Geographic, PBS and more.

As marketplace participants, LMC companies can now leverage DistroScale's technology to generate new revenues from brand-supported native content. This comes at a time when ^[1]39% of U.S. advertising budgets are being dedicated to content marketing, with nearly $4 billion expected to be spent on native advertising on social platforms alone – a 44% year over year increase – in the US by 2016.

About DistroScale: DistroScale is a platform and marketplace for buying, delivering, managing, & measuring native content across websites, mobile web & apps. The company has developed a scalable, easy to use, SaaS platform that works across web, mobile, social, and video. The company is based in the San Francisco Bay Area with offices in New York City and Los Angeles. More information is available at www.distroscale.com or @DistroScale.

About the Local Media Consortium:  More information about the Local Media Consortium is available at www.localmediaconsortium.com. Local Media Consortium members are: A.H. Belo, The Bakersfield Californian, Ballantine Communications, BH Media Group, Boston Globe Media Partners, The Buffalo News, Calkins Media, Columbian Publishing Company, Cooke North Carolina Publications, Cox Media Group, The Day Publishing Company, Deseret Digital Media, Digital First Media, The Dispatch Printing Company, Evening Post Industries, Freedom Communications, GateHouse Media, The Gazette Company, Halifax Media Group, Harris Enterprises, Hearst Newspapers, Herald Interactive, KTBS, Lee Enterprises, Maine Today Media, The McClatchy Company, Morris Communications, Newsday, New York Daily News, The Nutting Company, The Oklahoma Publishing Company, Paddock Publications, Paxton Media, Pioneer News Group, Randall Family, Randall Family, Sandusky Newspaper Group, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Schurz Communications Inc., Scripps, The Seattle Times, Shaw Family Holdings, Sonoma Media Investments, Star Tribune Media Company, Swift Communications, Sun-Times Media, Tampa Media Group, Tennessee Valley Printing Company, Times Publishing Company, Times-Shamrock Communications, Trib Total Media, WEHCO Media and Wrapports Productions.

The media outlets represented by the Local Media Consortium include major market daily newspapers and leading local television stations such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, The Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union, The Kansas City Star, The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal, Miami Herald, Omaha World-Herald, Orange County Register, The Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Tampa Tribune, WMAR, Channel 2, Baltimore; WXYZ, Channel 7, Detroit; WRTV, Channel 6, Indianapolis; WFTV, Channel 9, Orlando; KNX-TV, Channel 15, Phoenix; and KIRO-TV Channel 7, Seattle.

[1] BIA/Kelsey Dec. 2013

SOURCE DistroScale

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