City AM to allow brands to directly publish content

Free business newspaper City AM is planning to allow companies to publish their own content on its website in return for a monthly fee.

The CityTalk product is the idea of chief operating officer Charles Yardley, whose previous role was EMEA MD for Forbes, a business publication which has a similar system.

CityTalk, the new service, is expected to go live next month and Yardley is hoping to have three brand partners participating by the end of the year.

Yardley said: “Our decision to let advertisers publish content directly to the site is an exciting move for City AM and will result in an entirely new tenancy revenue-based route for us. The move has been driven by both client demand and the changing landscape surrounding brand journalism.

He added: “City AM is undergoing a period of high growth and transition and part of that is our desire to be among the first to market this advertising proposition – which is already getting a positive response – in the UK.”