Among the various classes of native advertising as defined by Edelman’s Steve Rubel, you’ll find “paid syndication,” in which “sponsored posts, articles, videos, slideshows and information graphics from corporations appear within the news section.”

Rubel includes Outbrain among the examples of companies that “sprinkle sponsored links into a company’s earned or owned media in the footer of related news articles.”

Indeed, that’s precisely Outbrain’s approach. With dozens of algorithms that analyse user habits, Outbrain delivers a list of recommended links at the end of stories appearing on sites like CNN, Mashable, and Slate.

Outbrain claims its links appear on 100,000 websites. The company serves over 150 billion recommendations and 15 billion page views per month, with a reach that extends to over 87% of the U.S. online population, not to mention international readers.

In this FIR interview, co-host Shel Holtz spends half an hour with Jeff Pyatt, head of Outbrain’s PR initiatives; he also addresses direct response clients. In this wide-ranging talk, Pyatt explains Outbrain’s value to PR practitioners and the kinds of content PR agencies generally pay to promote.

The conversation also covers the ethics of native advertising, among other topics.

Listen Now:

Get this podcast:

• Download the MP3 file (12.3Mb, 30:43)
• Get the show on iTunes
• Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS feed
• Get the FIR app for your mobile device – Android | iPhone | Windows Phone | Windows 8 and 8.1

About our Conversation Partner

Jeff Pyatt is the Head of Global PR Initiatives at Outbrain. In this role, he leads Outbrain’s content discovery business across all industries with a special focus on public relations. As such, Jeff has become an advocate for the PR industry within the company. He is passionate about the power of good storytelling and content-based journalism to develop brand loyalty.

Prior to joining Outbrain, he worked in publishing and politics, including editorial and business development roles at RealClearPolitics, Yahoo! News and Health Central, and communications roles in the office of Sen Harry Reid and Sen. Jim Webb’s winning 2006 campaign.

Jeff’s a vocal advocate for expanding the role of the PR in brand journalism and believes they will win at content by leveraging their best asset: journalists and great communicators.

• Connect with Jeff at @jeffpyatt.

Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future podcasts, in the online FIR Podcast Community on Google+.

You can also send us instant voicemail via SpeakPipe, right from the FIR website. Or, call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments. You can tweet us: @FIRpodcast. And you can email us at fircomments@gmail.com. If you wish, you can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

Check the FIR website for information about other FIR podcasts. To receive all podcasts in the FIR Podcast Network, subscribe to the “everything” RSS feed.

This FIR Interview is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.

Podsafe music – On A Podcast Instrumental Mix (MP3, 5Mb) by Cruisebox.

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)