Keith J. Kelly

Keith J. Kelly

Media

Time Inc. says they’ve surpassed BuzzFeed in native ad revenue

Time Inc. Chief Executive Joe Ripp claimed that the nation’s biggest magazine publisher now rings up more revenue from native advertising than the successful digital darling BuzzFeed, which he termed one of the “digital attackers.”

Ripp said BuzzFeed was “innovative” and was “the shiny new thing for a while” — but he says that Time Inc. has now surpassed BuzzFeed in its native ad revenue.

BuzzFeed missed its revenue target of $250 million last year and recorded only $170 million, forcing it to lower projections for the current year, the Financial Times reported.

(BuzzFeed disputes the report.)

Ripp, in his talk to Wall Street analysts on Thursday, said, “As native ramps up, I look at the digital attackers like BuzzFeed. … They figured out some amazing innovation: It was called native content. And while they were the shiny new thing for a while, the reality is that my native business is bigger than BuzzFeed’s right now.”

Ripp estimated that industrywide native advertising is a $4 billion-a-year market. “We think it’s growing to about $9 billion over the next several years,” he said.

Time Inc.’s revenue in the first quarter rose 1 percent, to $690 million, its best quarterly revenue increase in two years.

The company recorded a net loss of $10 million, compared with a $9 million loss a year earlier.

Time shares closed Thursday at $15.31, up 4 percent.