A MediaRadar study has found that approximately one-third of brands reduced programmatic ad purchasing last year, with EBay and Nestle making 66% and 57% reductions, respectively. So reports AdWeek.

Verizon Media, which was formerly branded as Oath, has just rolled out new features for its Moments native advertising platform. Meanwhile, content recommendation firm Outbrain is expanding its capabilities by purchasing Ligatus, a fully owned subsidiary of Gruner + Jahr.

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/02/21/verizon-media-builds-out-moments-native-ads-allow-gaming-carousels-and-shopping

Verizon Media earlier this year announced that it was partnering with Microsoft to offer native advertising for the software giant’s MSN, Outlook and Xbox properties.

Outbrain, meanwhile, is seeking to gain access to approximately 1,400 media brands in Europe by purchasing Ligatus, reports AdWeek.

https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/outbrain-to-buy-fellow-native-ad-specialist-ligatus/

Upon regulatory approval, the acquisition would mark Outbrain’s seventh deal and is part of the company’s strategy to consolidate the market and build a system that delivers non-interruptive ad, says David Kostman, co-CEO of Outbrain. In the U.S., Outbrains counts CNN as one of its clients.

Firms are also aggressively seeking to build new relationships with publishers. Taboola is just one example, having recently signed a four-year agreement with News Corp. Australia to provide native advertising and recommended content with the company’s publications, reports mediaweek. News Corp. content reaches 13 million people every month.

https://mediaweek.com.au/julian-delany-on-news-corp-australias-partnership-with-taboola/

In this example, however, Taboola replaces incumbent Outbrain. Taboola has also recently inked a deal with Business Insider, reports Mobile Marketer.

https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/business-insider-integrates-personalized-content-feed/548421/

In the case of Business Insider, the Taboola feed recommends content from the publisher that is then accompanied by video advertisements. Taboola also provides services for IBM’s Weather Channel and Tribune Publishing.

The biggest challenge to native advertising, however, is likely to be the quality of promotional content that brands produce as sponsored content. The Native Advertising Institute maintains that quality of content has been declining with the rise of native advertising.

In a blog,

https://nativeadvertisinginstitute.com/blog/move-native-advertising-forward-start-truth/

the organization argues that as brands get more involved with content creation, native advertising is losing its incremental value. The blog argues that collaboration between brands and content production studies needs to improve and the materials must be produced with the goal of creating trustworthy and authentic content. Journalistic principals in content production should also be followed.

The blog also highlights pointers on how to make compelling content from Melanie Deziel, founder of Storyfuel and former editor of branded content at The New York Times. She suggests that content provide instructions, such as for do-it-yourselfers, or other valuation information. It should be trustworthy and provide unique information, such as unusual details about a company or lessons that a company may have learned over the years. Native content should also have a certain amount of tension, which can be achieved by addressing unresolved issues or topics such as struggles within an industry. Content should also help create a human connection.

The public’s interest in regulating online content providers, including social media platforms, has been growing. However, it has recently widened to encompass a variety of additional areas, such as child welfare, protection of traditional media providers and communications intended to radicalize individuals.