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BuzzFeed's growth, and its latest round of funding, have quite rightly been taken very seriously by the media industry.

It's the standout example of a digital-first publishing company growing globally and making money when so much of the publishing sector has struggled to profit from changes to digital publishing. It's also one of the very few publishers to truly use social sharing as a way to build audience traffic.

It's not a traditional news organisation in any way, even though it clearly deals in newsworthy content. But it has an uncanny ability to tap into the zeitgeist for millennials. For all these reasons the media industry takes BuzzFeed very seriously, hoping to find elements of their publishing and commercial model they can use to act 'digital-first' - and ultimately to build profitable digital business models. Seeing how often BuzzFeed was referenced in the now infamous leaked New York Times digital business review makes it clear how traditional publishers are watching BuzzFeed to find magic ingredients they can use.

I don't think UK brands have been fixated in the same way. They're definitely interested in BuzzFeed, and are experimenting more with its native, content-driven ad model; we're starting to see a more diverse set of brands run campaigns (everyone from Natwest to Netflix). Having an ad model driven entirely on promoted articles is a double-edged sword in advertising terms. Whilst BuzzFeed clearly has the editorial talent to create content for brands that is entertaining and shareable, key brand messages can be a bit recessive and it's really best suited for brand-building activities.

However, one of the most interesting aspects of the funding deal is BuzzFeed's plan to build a bolstered creative production unit, especially in video. Its video work for Purina in the US clearly shows how it can make really shareable media for brands, and I expect it will find many more brands who want to appeal to millennials asking them to work together to make good video and editorial content. In many ways it'll be up against publishers and creative agencies as it further builds its footprint in the advertising community.

For all this, it still has some way to go before it is truly a preeminent media company - as it claims it will be - in the UK. It's not yet a top 10, or even 20, digital destination for 15-34s. The entry point for many readers is still through stories discovered in Facebook news feeds, and this is a potential vulnerability. Facebook could decide to demote it in Edgerank (just look at what happened to Zynga) and it would seriously impact its traffic. It need to get its readers in the habit of coming directly to BuzzFeed as a digital destination in its own right.

I wouldn't bet it against it, though. It has shown how in tune it is with younger audiences, and if it builds itself into a top 10 publisher for this audience, it will also be taken very seriously by the brand and agency community.
Mark Holden is head of futures at Arena

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Can BuzzFeed really become a 'preeminent' media company?

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BuzzFeed's growth, and its latest round of funding, have quite rightly been taken very seriously by the media industry. It's the standout example of a digital-first publishing company growing globally and making money when so much of the publishing sector has struggled to profit from changes to digital publishing.

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http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2014/july/utopia-campaign

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Wake up and smell the funding. Pact Coffee, the UK coffee subscription service that delivers freshly roasted beans to your door, has closed a £2 million Series A round led by MMC Ventures.

Previous investor Connect Ventures has also participated, as well as Songkick founder Ian Hogarth, Robin Klein of Index Ventures, and Naked Wines founder Rowan Gormley. The double million shot of funding adds to the £500,000 Pact Coffee raised back in June 2013.

Founded by Stephen Rapoport, who previously built and sold the apartment-sharing site Crashpadder to Airbnb, Pact Coffee can be thought of as a sort of ' Zappos of coffee ' by attempting to make specialty coffee accessible to the mass market. Customers subscribe to the service - a classic e-commerce subscription play - and get freshly roasted coffee from around the world via next day delivery.

Competitors include other subscription coffee players such as HasBean and Kopi.

Stephen Rapoport, founder of Pact Coffee, says the new investment will be used to accelerate growth, as well as growing the startup's team from 30 to 50 in the UK. He also notes that customer service (and, presumably, logistics rather than pure tech) will be key to success in the coffee subscription market.

"This model is not as simple as it looks from the outside; the frictionless customer experience has taken 18 months' hard work and we are still just 5% of the way there," he says.

Investors obviously like what they see so far, evidenced by today's Series A round. But, then again, coffee isn't called black gold for nothing.

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UK Coffee Subscription Service Pact Coffee Raises £2M Series A

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Wake up and smell the funding. Pact Coffee, the UK coffee subscription service that delivers freshly roasted beans to your door, has closed a £2 million Series A round led by MMC Ventures. Previous investor Connect Ventures has also participated, as well as Songkick founder Ian Hogarth, Robin Klein of Index Ventures, and Naked Wines founder Rowan Gormley.

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Boomf raises money for personalised marshmallows

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Boomf raises money for personalised marshmallows

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Personalised marshmallow makers Boomf have raised over $1m to expand their physical operation and product range.

Co-founder Andy Bell says that the business have $1m committed from investors and are in the process of closing the round.

The London-based company sell personalised sets of marshmallows with the consumer's pictures printed on to them.

The investment comes from a number of investors including Nick Jenkins, founder of Moonpig, who is also joining the company as chairman. Other investors include Duncan Jennings, founder of VoucherCodes, and Matt Wheeler, founder of DriftRock.

Here comes the Boomf

Boomf allow users to upload pictures from Instagram, Facebook and computers and marshmallows made with the pictures on them.

With the investment, Boomf plan to expand their number of physical stores after a successful trial in Selfridges earlier this year.

The team also have a number of new inventive products in the works, including giant marshmallows as large as your head that you can see above.

Culinary expansion

Boomf was launched as a joint venture between Andy Bell, founder of Mint Digital, and James Middleton, culinary entrepreneur and brother to the Duchess of Cambridge.

The startup has now been spun out as an independent company with Bell acting as CEO and Middleton taking the role of Production Director.

Commenting on the appointment of Jenkins as chairman, Middleton said:

There can be few people with better experience of personalised e-commerce in the UK.

It is wonderful that he sees the potential of the Boomf and feels able to help steer our growth.

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Middleton brother's Boomf Instagram marshmallows raise over $1m - UKTN (UK Tech News)

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Personalised marshmallow makers Boomf have raised over $1m to expand their physical operation and product range. Co-founder Andy Bell says that the business have $1m committed from investors and are in the process of closing the round. The London-based company sell personalised sets of marshmallows with the consumer's pictures printed on to them.

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YR Store app allows you to design and print your own garment in 24 hours

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YR Store app allows you to design and print your own garment in 24 hours

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Protein is a global community of the world's most influential thinkers, doers and connectors. We collaborate with brands in our Agency , provide space in our Studios and track consumer culture in our Journal . We've also developed a Product to help you build your own community. It's rather good, if we do say so ourselves.

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Protein is a global community of the world's most influential thinkers, doers and connectors. We collaborate with brands in our Agency, provide space in our Studios and track consumer culture in our Journal . We've also developed a Product to help you build your own community.

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BuzzFeed raises £30m to become a 'preeminent media company'

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BuzzFeed raises £30m to become a 'preeminent media company'

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Online media firm BuzzFeed has raised $50m (£30m) of new funding from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which sees the US startup becoming a "preeminent media company" in the future.

The round takes BuzzFeed's total funding to $96.3m since 2008, with the company reportedly planning to invest more in online video, acquisitions and an in-house incubator for technology startups.

BuzzFeed joins Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Pinterest and Foursquare in Andreessen Horowitz's portfolio, with general partner Chris Dixon joining the company's board as part of the round, which values BuzzFeed at $850m.

Dixon announced the investment in a blog post. "Many of today's great media companies were built on top of emerging technologies. Examples include Time Inc. which was built on color printing, CBS which was built on radio, and Viacom which was built on cable TV," he wrote.

"We're presently in the midst of a major technological shift in which, increasingly, news and entertainment are being distributed on social networks and consumed on mobile devices. We believe BuzzFeed will emerge from this period as a preeminent media company."

Dixon went on to describe BuzzFeed as "a full stack startup", pointing to its 100-person technology team as well as its 200-strong editorial staff as reasons to invest in a new media company. "Engineers are 1st class citizens," wrote Dixon.

"Everything is built for mobile devices from the outset. Internet native formats like lists, tweets, pins, animated GIFs, etc. are treated as equals to older formats like photos, videos, and long form essays. BuzzFeed takes the internet and computer science seriously."

Dixon added that BuzzFeed now attracts more than 150m monthly visitors, is "consistently profitable" and will generate "triple digit millions" of revenues in 2014.

The New York Times has fleshed out the details of what BuzzFeed plans to do with the $50m funding round: "Introducing new content sections, creating an in-house incubator for new technology and potential acquisitions, and putting far more resources toward BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, its Los Angeles-based video arm."

BuzzFeed's rapid growth in recent years has been making waves within traditional media companies. It was prominent in the New York Times' Innovation Report earlier this year - a leaked internal document that criticised the newspaper's digital strategy.

Meanwhile, a report commissioned by the BBC from Sir Howard Stringer suggested that the BBC could also learn lessons from BuzzFeed's growth.

"Given Buzzfeed, for example, was only founded in 2006, this raises the question of why the BBC's global digital reach is not more significant," wrote Stringer. "While the BBC is the most-tweeted news organisation globally, this doesn't automatically translate into hits on the website in the same way as BuzzFeed."

BuzzFeed's growth has not been without its sticky moments, however: most recently when it sacked one of its most high-profile writers following accusations of plagiarism.

* Google to BuzzFeed: seven moments that shaped digital media
Topics

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BuzzFeed raises £30m to become a 'preeminent media company'

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Online media firm BuzzFeed has raised $50m (£30m) of new funding from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which sees the US startup becoming a "preeminent media company" in the future. The round takes BuzzFeed's total funding to $96.3m since 2008, with the company reportedly planning to invest more in online video, acquisitions and an in-house incubator for technology startups.

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The Internet of Things will ruin your birthday

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The Internet of Things will ruin your birthday

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You wake up to a jazzy MIDI version of the "Happy Birthday" song. Your smart thermostat and smoke detector are singing in harmony because today is your day. Your fitness tracker is vibrating in an unfamiliar Morse Code. Searching the internet, you come across a question in the support forums about it, explaining it is the preprogrammed birthday greeting silent alarm that you can disable after pairing the device again and updating your settings. Your bathroom scale, toilet, and garage door also welcome you with birthday wishes. Open up the refrigerator to another friendly jingle. Tropicana, Fage, and Sabra Hummus all wish you happy birthday. Now there's an incoming message. It is the "birthday selfie" it snapped when you reached for the orange juice.
Your automobile navigation system is the next device with a special greeting. "Hello. Good morNING. And. Happy birthDAY," the system says in its usual condescending inflection. Driving to work, your "And happy birthday [your name pronounced as a variation of the misspelling on the cup]," the Starbucks barista says. The cloud-based Clover coffeemaker read your rewards card data as soon as you walked into the shop. You can still hear the ring faintly buzzing in your purse until -oops!-your smart watch pings all of your contacts with a hologram of candles on a cake. The flood of incoming emails and texts short-circuits your connected ring. Silence at last.

connected ring unexpectedly starts blinking and vibrating without a break. Startled, you slide it off and throw it in your purse. It is set to alert you to incoming Facebook messages. And today, on your birthday, there are hundreds.
It was my birthday recently. Perhaps you heard? Sorry about that! Google Plus, the zombie social network I have barely used since its launch in 2011, alerted my contacts that have Android phones. And anyone with iCal synced to Google Calendar had it marked in their iPhones. "The internet is trying to tell me that it's your birthday," someone wrote in an email to me. Throughout the day several others would send similarly kind but bewildered messages.

It was a bit embarrassing, but I'm more concerned about this alert as a form of data tracking. My guess is that Google set up the alert to calibrate the affinity score of everyone who sent me a message with "birthday" in the email. Those who contacted me that day are now marked as stronger connections than those who didn't. The Facebook algorithms-what used to be called Edgerank-must factor in birthday engagement (yes, I cringed typing that) when calculating the affinity score of the relationships of users.

My friends often don't know my birthday because in the years that I celebrate it, I usually opt for dinner and drinks the Saturday night before the actual date. Some companies and social networks are just as confused. I have the habit of marking my birthday on the first of the month when I can't be bothered to click a drop-down menu. Sometimes I just go with January 1 and the default year. It is only when I'm not paying attention that a company gets it right. On my birthday, ZocDoc, EVA Air, and, of all places, Blingee, were among the few to send me emails wishing me a happy birthday.

Companies are constantly looking for excuses to contact customers and users. Look at how mobile apps have redefined "breaking news" to include just about anything. CNN, the New York Times, and other media apps often abuse their push notification privileges to inform users of the deaths of octogenarian TV actors or Justin Bieber's arrest. These apps have every incentive to get on your lock screen. Meanwhile settings and permissions for notifications are increasingly difficult to control.

A birthday is the perfect excuse to sneak in a company plug. It is flattery as advertising. Perhaps some people regard Blingee more highly for remembering them on this day. If Blingee sells its list of birthdays to another company, it has an innocuous entry point to contact you with a "special offer."

But let us call this what it is: birthday harassment. Social networks can use your birthday to determine what people are important to you. Brands use your birthday as an excuse to tell you they exist. The data tracking and governing algorithms that are part of your everyday internet experience become more visible on your birthday.

The internet already feels like the Yo app on your birthday ("Happy birthday! Happy birthday! Happy birthday!" and nothing more to say). As we move toward an "internet of things," with connected devices that may access personal Facebook and Google data, these notifications will be harder to avoid. New customs may emerge to avoid birthday wishes from smart coffeemakers and connected forks. Perhaps it will become an annual tradition to shut off all devices on your birthday.

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The Internet of Things Will Ruin Birthdays - The Message - Medium

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You wake up to a jazzy MIDI version of the "Happy Birthday" song. Your smart thermostat and smoke detector are singing in harmony because today is your day. Your fitness tracker is vibrating in an unfamiliar Morse Code.

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Love Thy Neighbor Make living in your tiny New York apartment a little easier with an anonymous message to your inconsiderate neighbor. Ben and Jerry's will sweeten the blow by providing your neighbor with a pint of ice cream along with your note.

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6 things you need to know from the latest Ofcom report

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6 things you need to know from the latest Ofcom report

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Ofcom's 2014 communications market report

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Ofcom's 2014 communications market report

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The next big thing in transport is car-sharing

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The next big thing in transport is car-sharing

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Carpooling, that time-honored technique for making sure the kids get to soccer practice, is making a comeback in Silicon Valley. Lyft, the fast-growing ridesharing startup, is introducing a new service today to match you with one or more passengers heading in the same direction. The main benefit: a fare that the company says is up to 60 percent less than normal.

Lyft Line will show you your fare up front, and let you pay the smaller amount even if the company fails to match you with another person. The company says it's part of an effort to make on-demand rides a viable alternative to car ownership and public transportation. In developing Line, the company noted that 90 percent of Lyft trips see someone taking the same trip within five minutes. "What we can do with that is build a whole new type of public transit," co-founder Logan Green told reporters this week.
"A whole new type of public transit."
Lyft is currently locked in a no-holds barred battle with Uber, who originated the model of on-demand transportation that the companies now share. In a hilarious twist, Uber - which had clearly gotten wind of Lyft's carpooling plans - rushed out a blog post last night saying that they, too, would be launching a carpooling model later this month. It's a "bold social experiment," Uber says, though you can try Lyft's experiment starting today. ( Hitch, which launched as a carpool-only twist on Uber, is also available in San Francisco.)

Ridesharing isn't new, of course. There are a variety of websites devoted to helping people find rides; there's the popular practice of "slugging," in which car owners pick up extra passengers in exchange for the ability to use the carpool lane or for a reduced toll. But those services aren't as easy to use as an on-demand service, and Lyft says it has the density to make ridesharing feasible on a grand scale.

Lyft Line marks the company returning to its roots, co-founder John Zimmer said. Lyft spun out of an earlier company, Zimride, which matched people for long-haul rides. Zimride was popular mostly with college students needing to return home at the end of the semester, and as such was something people used a few times a year at most. The company was acquired by Enterprise last year.

Lyft Line was made possible by the acquisition in April of Rover, a small transit startup led by David Dryjanksi and Lev Popov. Rover used real-time transit data and hacked a private Lyft API to match people who were considering transit with Lyfts. It's available today in San Francisco, and will come to other Lyft cities later. The first ride is free up to $25.

With Lyft line, Zimmer says, the opportunity is much larger. The company believes that if it can get you to work for $5 or less, it's the kind of thing you'll do all the time, even replacing transit. At $10 a day, though, a Lyft commute would be two or three times as expensive as transit in most cities. But it could well be cheaper than owning a car, depending on the cost of insurance, gas, parking, and whether or not you have a car payment.

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The next big thing in transportation is carpooling

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Carpooling, that time-honored technique for making sure the kids get to soccer practice, is making a comeback in Silicon Valley. Lyft, the fast-growing ridesharing startup, is introducing a new service today to match you with one or more passengers heading in the same direction.

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Research shows we're still spending cautiously despite increase in consumer confidence

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Research shows we're still spending cautiously despite increase in consumer confidence

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Consumer confidence in the UK has surged by 14 per cent over the past year and, although still cautious, people are parting with their cash so long as the value of what they are buying is clear, according to data from Nielsen.

"People have got used to living on less and are far more selective in their choices as a result," says Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen UK.

Savvy shoppers are saving money by going to value retailers such as Aldi and Lidl for essentials ( with Aldi poised to overtake Waitrose as the UK's sixth largest supermarket ), but shopping at the likes of Marks & Spencer for treats and special occasions.

"It's not as simple as saying the market is polarised between up and downmarket - those who have money and those who don't," he adds. "That's not the case. Consumers are still buying things that are important but they've found ways of coping."

Discount groceries

More than half (53 per cent) of consumers opted for cheaper grocery brands to save on household expenses between April and June, according to Nielsen's Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions, and 34 per cent will continue to buy cheaper alternatives even when the economy picks up.

Overall, the picture is slightly more positive in terms of spending because even though more than half the population (58 per cent) have changed spending habits to save on household expenses, this is down from 70 per cent two years ago.

However, the broader economic pressure has not gone away, warns Watkins.

"Consumers are much more optimistic and more willing to spend but some are still unable or reluctant to do so as they don't want to end up out of pocket," he says. "As a result, consumers are shopping around more and using technology to compare prices and share ideas, all of which is really important as it helps them to manage budgets and make informed decisions."

Switching to cheaper grocery brands was the most popular way to cut costs two years ago, but 18 per cent fewer people are doing that today, with 53 per cent doing so.

Saving on gas and electricity bills is now the most common way to cut back (61 per cent) and half the population will continue to do so as the economy improves.

Indeed, rising utility charges are the primary concern for 31 per cent of consumers living in Britain today, followed by debt, increasing food prices and job security (all 18 per cent).

This compares with two years ago when the economy was the biggest worry, and although it is the fifth greatest concern, fear is waning, falling by 12 percentage points to 17 per cent, in 2014.

While rising food prices are still a major cause of unease among consumers, this too has lessened by 4 percentage points in the past two years, the third largest fall over the period.

"The price of food is immediate for consumers, which is why there is a continual need for promotional activity such as price cuts and multi-buy savings, particularly from food retailers, to make sure consumers feel comfortable they're getting value for money," says Watkins.

Likewise, the number of people worried about the increasing price of fuel has halved and, although job security remains one of Britons' primary concerns, it is down by 9 percentage points compared with two years ago. Plus the number of people who are feeling positive about job prospects in the coming year (35 per cent) has increased by 67 per cent since 2012.

As 2015 approaches, immigration (15 per cent), health (11 per cent) and establishing a work/life balance (11 per cent) are becoming more of a concern, with health worries growing the most, at 57 per cent over the past two years.

However, Watkins advises that this is because other problems have fallen back in line.

"We see these issues bubbling beneath the surface and they tend to come out more when economic concerns aren't so top-of-mind," he says.

While 60 per cent of people believe the UK is still in recession compared with 92 per cent in 2012, 20 per cent of those who do are confident it will be over next year. And 47 per cent of people now feel positive about their personal finances, the highest this measure has been in nearly seven years.

Credit crunch

While 28 per cent of consumers say they still do not have any spare cash after covering essential living costs, among those who do 37 per cent say they are saving it and 21 per cent are putting it towards paying off debts, credit cards and loans.

Overall, the picture is slightly better for brands this time around as 40 per cent of people think now is a good or excellent time to buy the things they will want and need for the coming year - 33 per cent higher than those who said the same two years ago.

Holidays (28 per cent) and new clothes (22 per cent) are two of the most popular choices in the survey, although, paradoxically, 57 per cent are spending less on clothes and 34 per cent have reduced the number of holidays they take to create savings.

So, although more cautious than pre-recession, consumers are generally more optimistic than they have been for a long time and they are willing to spend money - but the value proposition has to be clear.

Consumer confidence nears pre-recession high

Consumer confidence is the highest it has been in the UK since the autumn of 2007, according to Nielsen's Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions.

Positivity has increased fairly steeply over the past year leading to a Consumer Confidence Score of 90. This means Britons are now the fifth most confident population of the 32 European countries measured behind Denmark (106), Switzerland (99), Germany (96) and Norway (95).

Scores above 100 indicate optimism while scores below signify pessimism - the highest score the UK has seen was 101 back in 2006.

The UK is the 24th most confident nation in the world, with India topping the list after scoring 128. The global average now stands one point higher than the first quarter at 97.

"The most optimistic countries globally continue to be the likes of India, China and Indonesia," says Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen UK.

"The UK has always been above the European average but Europe as a region has always been less optimistic than other parts of the globe."

The recession and the Euro Zone crisis have all had an impact on consumer outlook and spend with Watkins suggesting that consumer confidence tends to be an indication of consumer demand six to nine months ahead.

"We don't see food inflation rising significantly in the near future so it is probably going to be the election in nine months that has the next major impact on consumer spend. An increase to base rates and therefore mortgage rates [will also have an effect] but that is probably 18 months away."

Keith Moor, chief marketing officer at Santander agrees that the upcoming election will likely influence people's behaviour.

"People tend to hedge their bets spending-wise around the election as they want to see the outcome before they start committing to any other big purchases," he says.

Marketers' response

Keith Moor, chief marketing officer, Santander

More people are switching their bank account now [that the process has been made simpler] and they look to get their money sorted, so it absolutely makes sense that 37 per cent of people are putting spare cash into savings, as consumers are more prudent than they used to be generally.

We're seeing banks increasing lending particularly in the mortgage space, and interest rates are still at a very low level - although soon to rise according to the Bank of England - which is usually a sign that more money is in demand.

I'm always slightly wary of consumer confidence scores and people believing the data because when confidence has risen to extremely high levels in the past it has always preceded some kind of economic crisis down the line.

Andrew Cocker, chief marketing officer, Skyscanner

Despite prices on popular European flights coming down over the past 12 months, people are spending about 20 per cent more because they are being more adventurous in their choice of destination, picking places like China, Japan and Brazil rather than the usual favourites of Spain, Greece and Turkey.

So even though they are spending more on flights it's because they are going further afield now which suggests confidence in the economy as they are willing to spend more on holidays.

Our research shows that getting good value is still the number one priority for people though. This is also important because while people are spending more and going to more exotic locations the type of messaging they are responding to is still very much about value.

Methodology

Nielsen's quarterly Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions measures the financial outlook and concerns of more than 30,000 online consumers in 60 countries. These results represent the views of UK respondents during the second quarter of 2014.

More trends

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Consumers continue to spend cautiously despite surge in confidence

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Consumer confidence in the UK has surged by 14 per cent over the past year and, although still cautious, people are parting with their cash so long as the value of what they are buying is clear, according to data from Nielsen.

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Medium starts to run advertising - BMW the first to run a campaign

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Medium starts to run advertising - BMW the first to run a campaign

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When blogging platform Medium begins publishing Re:form on Tuesday, its latest "collection," readers may notice something entirely new to the site: advertising.

BMW is sponsoring Re:form, a collection of posts about design edited by Sarah Rich, a former senior editor at Dwell magazine. It's the first time a collection, Medium's term for a digital publication, will have a sponsor. It's also the first attempt by Medium, created in 2012 by Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone, to generate revenue.

"We're in exploratory moment," said Evan Hansen, a senior editor at Medium. "It's not about the money, it's about the experiment."

Medium quickly gained a reputation for attractive design and high-caliber contributors, including best-selling authors like Jon Krakauer and Walter Isaacson and business leaders like Elon Musk. On Monday, Mitt Romney published a short post about a family vacation, complete with a photo collage.

Along the way, Medium has evolved into a publisher, introducing collections around several topics including political cartoons, sports and military tech and national security. Medium staff also commission original articles, some of which appear on Matter, an online-only magazine Medium acquired in 2013. But more than 99% of the roughly 10,000 articles that appear on Medium each week are not commissioned, according to the company.

In addition to Re:form, Medium is planning a collection on music, which will be edited by Source magazine co-founder Jonathan Shecter, as well as one on tech, led by Steven Levy, a prominent Wired magazine contributor. No brands are currently attached to the music or tech publications, according to Edward Lichty, head of corporate development and strategy at Medium.

BMW's sponsorship of Re:form will last six months. During that time, "Presented by BMW" will appear near the top of the page, with BMW videos running at the bottom of every article. Medium staff also plans to work with BMW and its agencies to produce four to five articles about the automaker that will run on the publication. These articles will be marked as sponsored and published through BMW's profile on Medium.

The sponsorship of Re:form is part of BMW's broader campaign to promote its new 4 Series Gran Coupe, according to Tom Penich, media communications manager at BMW of North America. The campaign also includes print, digital video and limited TV commercials in the fall.

BMW's marketing outlays in the U.S. totaled $274.5 million in 2013, a 4.7% decline from 2012, according to the Ad Age DataCenter.

There's no sales staff at Medium. Instead, it has worked with Nativ.ly, a company that seeks to pair brands with startups. Universal McCann, BMW's media buying and planning agency, also helped broker the deal between the automaker and Medium.

"Design is a key positioning point for this vehicle," Mr. Penich said. "It makes sense to align with the design content that Medium curates."

Sponsoring Re:form, he added, is "very much an awareness play, which is how we would gauge the success of the campaign." Medium's reputation as a platform for long-form storytelling also appealed to the automaker, he said.

"BMW has a very strong history in storytelling, all the way back to BMW Films," Mr. Penich said, referring to the eight short films the company produced and released in 2001 and 2002. "It's at the core of what we do at BMW in terms of marketing."

Neither BMW nor Medium would disclose the price of the campaign.

Medium has committed to publish 100 stories about design on Re:form over five to six months, according to Mr. Lichty. For those stories, BMW is guaranteed a minimum number of minutes of total reading time, a metric accumulating the amount of time people spend with an article instead of the number of people who see an article or the page views it gets.

"We felt that impressions were not necessarily the best way to measure real value," Mr. Lichty said.

Estimates of Medium's traffic vary. ComScore, which began tracking the site in November, estimated that Medium had more than 833,000 unique U.S. visitors in June, counting visitors via both desktop and mobile browsers and the mobile app. Medium, citing Google Analytics, said 6 million unique U.S. visitors came to the site on desktop and mobile browsers in June.

Medium said it got 9 million unique global visitors in June; ComScore doesn't track Medium's global visitors on mobile.

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BMW Runs the First Ads on Medium, Twitter Founders' Blogging Platform

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When blogging platform Medium begins publishing Re:form on Tuesday, its latest "collection," readers may notice something entirely new to the site: advertising. BMW is sponsoring Re:form, a collection of posts about design edited by Sarah Rich, a former senior editor at Dwell magazine.

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Pinterest has launched a messaging feature

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Pinterest has launched a messaging feature

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Pinterest today is unveiling a new way users can communicate, collaborate and share with one another. With the launch of a new messaging feature, users will be able to keep discussions going on Pinterest around their favorite Pins without having to leave the site or apps.

Last spring, Pinterest launched its Send a Pin feature, which enabled users to share interesting Pins with their friends on and off the site. Users that were connected on Pinterest would receive a notification that would point them to the shared pin. And others would receive emails about the content that was shared.

Since then, the feature has become incredibly popular with users - which Pinterest like to call "Pinners" - with more than 2 million Pins sent each day. But it wasn't all that useful.

The Evolution Of Pinterest Messages

While sending a Pin was a good way for users on Pinterest to pass along content that users had common interest in, there wasn't much that users could do with those pins after they were sent. Many users ended up responding to email notifications as a way to continue the conversation around things that were shared with them.

The hope is that the new messaging feature will enable Pinners to keep conversations going without having to leave the site.

Believe it or not, the messaging feature has been only a few months in the making. According to Product Manager Michael Yamartino, the messaging feature was the result of a prototyping session that took place over the course of a week in Portland.

A team of five made the trip north to work with Product Designer Tom Watson, formerly of Facebook. They lived out of an Airbnb and worked out of the Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE) for five days. On Friday, they had the first Messaging prototype.

That was about two months ago. Since then, Pinterest has been working internally with employees and so-called "Power Pinners" to refine the product. That meant working out the kinks, and to ensure that the user experience wouldn't take away from what users come to the service to do - which is to Pin stuff.

What Pinterest Messaging Is... And Isn't

Pinterest's take on messaging is similar to what you'll see on other social networks, but there are some key differences. One of those differences is that unlike Facebook, Pinterest's messaging feature doesn't have a persistent contact list that follows you around everywhere. That's by design. Pinterest doesn't want its service to become about messaging, but wants messaging to empower the way people use its platform.

"We're not a communications service," Yamartino said. "We're not trying to be the place to say 'What's up?' or 'When are you coming home?'"

When users choose to Send a Pin, they are shown a list of contacts to choose from. Once that Pin is sent, the conversation appears in the lower left-hand corner of the website or tablet app. (Mobile users will be treated to an entirely separate dialogue screen for messages.)

The avatars of users that you've exchanged messages with look kind of like Facebook's "chat heads," and conversations can be selected by clicking on them. They can be just as easily shut down by clicking the "x" in the corner of each. On the website, avatars and conversations only partially cover the frames behind them, allowing Pinners to scroll through and still see the content shared in their global feed.

There are a few nifty features that could lead to messaging blowing up. For instance, Pinterest has introduced its Guided Search directly into the messages field, so that Pinners can search for, discover, and share content that is relevant to the conversation they are having on the fly.

That means new ways of sharing and collaborating on things via Pins. Let's say you're working on a home remodeling project with your wife, for instance. Now you can swap ideas back and forth without sharing in your global feed.

Or let's say you're planning a trip with a group. Now the entire entourage can use Pins as a way to collaborate on places to go and set an agenda. Which reminds me... Pinterest Messaging is available for groups, in addition to one-on-one conversations. Up to 10 people can share Pins with one another.

"We think that a lot of the projects people take on... they do this with friend or partner," Yamartino told me. "Being able to have that conversation on Pinterest is convenient for them."

For Pinterest, it also means keeping the conversation on its platform. That will lead to more Pins being shared, and more engaged users. For a network like Pinterest, where user engagement is its most valuable currency, that's a very, very good thing.

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Pinterest Rolls Out Messaging So Pinners Can Have Conversations Around Shared Pins

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Pinterest today is unveiling a new way users can communicate, collaborate and share with one another. With the launch of a new messaging feature, users will be able to keep discussions going on Pinterest around their favorite Pins without having to leave the site or apps.

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Millennial disruption index - banks are most ripe for 'disruption'

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Millennial disruption index - banks are most ripe for 'disruption'