To say 2018 has been a year of flux at Oath is an understatement. In September Oath CEO Tim Armstrong resigned amid reports of a conflict over the strategic vision between him and Verizon’s exec leadership. Then just last month Oath was rebranded as Verizon Media Group, with a new mission of facilitating media transactions within its emerging DSP, instead of just selling ads. Now rumors are circulating that Oath is considering taking its best content behind a paywall, which would change their monetization strategy away from ad sales once and for all.
The project even has a sort-of-secret code name . . . “Project Purple”, which is probably a reference to Oath’s Yahoo legacy. If the subscription strategy wins out brands like Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, Huffington Post, etc., would be available behind a paywall. Of course a subscription would be ad free, taking Oath further away from its original charter of being a preeminent ad sales and data platform.
Considering that Verizon paid $9B for AOL and Yahoo (which created Oath), I’m sure the pressure is on to squeeze ever last nickel out of their business model. More to come, I’m sure.
