COLOGNE – Native or custom advertising units, is powering profitability for the Chicago-based satirical publisher The Onion, says CEO Mike McAvoy, in this interview with Beet.TV at DMEXCO last month.
Big marketers including Ford are on board with custom campaigns. The business of display does not work for publishers without massive scale, he says.
Helping the bottom line in recent months has been the The Onion’s coverage candidacy of Donald Trump, which McAvoy describes as an irresistible “train wreck.”
The fast-growing digital property has doubled staff over the past two years and has made a big push into video with the Onion Studios in Chicago.
