The Washington Post to ditch its ad tech unit Zeus as a standalone business

The Washington Post will no longer operate its ad tech unit Zeus as a separate business, according to a memo sent to employees Tuesday and obtained by Axios. Most Zeus employees are redirected to roles within The Post’s advertising sales department.

why it matters: Integrating Zeus into The Post’s existing ad sales team ends its efforts to profit from licensing ad tech software to other premium publishers.

catch up soon: In 2019, The Post created Zeus Prime, a publisher-licensed software product that enables businesses to buy automated ads in real time.

• The rise of subscriptions, consumer products such as newsletters and podcasts, and increased competition from other ad tech markets have made it difficult to scale.

detailAccording to the note, the company will cultivate the Zeus Prime technology for internal use by the Post’s own advertising team. The company’s self-service advertising tools now serve The Post’s own ad technology clients.

• Prior to these changes, Zeus existed as a separate division within The Post, reporting to both technical and sales divisions.
• Earlier this year, The Post retired its publisher-licensed ad optimization tool, Zeus Performance.

be smart: The company had planned to shift more energy to Zeus Prime after closing Zeus Performance, but the slowdown in the advertising market made it difficult for Zeus Prime to continue expanding its network of premium publishers. I was.

big picture: The move comes at a time when The Post is struggling to craft an ad tech strategy.

• The company turned down a sales offer for a content management system business called ArcXP last year.
• The Washington Post’s chief information officer, Sheresh Prakash, said in June that the company was focused on its business.
• On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Post may now be interested in spinning off ArcXP.