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JWP Connatix, a leading video technology company and monetization platform, is in a new phase of growth since Connatix and JW Player merged last October. The company is using its scale to help publishing and broadcasting clients make money with video, while also providing solutions for advertisers to reach their audiences.
Here, John Nardone, who took the reins as CEO in March, speaks about the range of solutions JWP Connatix provides to clients, how it uses artificial intelligence and its partnership with the New York Post and Page Six.
Q: How does JWP Connatix work with clients?
John Nardone: JWP Connatix helps our clients in publishing and broadcasting make money with video. We provide them with a range of solutions for video content management, video on demand online and for streaming, live streaming and programmatic advertising monetization.
We work with over 7,000 clients globally, including 80% of the top 25 comScore US publishers, along with major advertisers, and leading broadcasters across categories including sports, news, entertainment, and more.
Q: How has the merger supercharged your business?
JN: Historically, JW Player provided video infrastructure solutions, while Connatix provided programmatic advertising monetization. We shared a lot of customers, including the New York Post, who leveraged different pieces of our separate platforms to power their video strategies. Now, we’ve combined the best of both offerings into one streamlined solution that helps media owners stream and monetize videos while enabling advertisers to reach their audiences on premium content — bringing both the buy and sell sides of the industry closer together with seamless technology that enables clients to focus on viewer engagement, user experience, and storytelling.
Our customers want to be able to focus on what they do best…creating great content…while streamlining their operations. Being able to offer a more complete and integrated set of services helps them to stretch their budget without sacrificing quality. JWP and Connatix have both always been committed to supporting the digital media industry, and that commitment continues now as JWP Connatix.
Q: Tell me about your partnership with The New York Post?
JN: JWP Connatix has been working with The New York Post for four plus years. JWP historically powered The New York Post’s top-of-page online video player (OVP), while Connatix powered the mid-page videos on both New York Post and Page Six. They’ve been a dream partner over the years, always looking toward the future and thinking strategically about how to use video to better engage with their audience and advertisers while always prioritizing a top-notch reader experience. We are thrilled to continue our partnership with The New York Post, helping them take a unified editorial approach and streamlining their backend video and monetization technology so they can focus on what really matters: continuing to provide quality stories with a great user experience for their readers.
Q: You were named CEO in March. What has been your path to JWP Connatix and how has it prepared you for this job?
JN: I’ve been working in online advertising since the very beginning, with the first digital agency, Modem Media, where we placed the first paid ads on the internet. I was a founding board member of the IAB in 1995. And over the past 30 years, I’ve been involved in numerous successful ventures, driving significant company growth and seeing through many mergers, acquisitions and exits at companies including MediaOcean, Flashtalking, and [X+1].
Since 1994, my career has centered on harnessing new technologies as they disrupt the media and advertising business. JW Player and Connatix were also industry pioneers, so I feel right at home with this outstanding team of technology and advertising experts.
Over the past few months, we’ve been focused on completing the merger and re-setting our company strategy for an A.I.-focused future.The consumer demand for quality video experiences just keeps increasing, and we want to continue to help our publisher and broadcast customers engage their consumers wherever they are…on the open web, on social media, or on YouTube.
Q: What is the biggest challenge facing your clients and what are some solutions you can offer them?
JN: The digital publishing industry is wrestling with a lot of challenges. Consumer behavior has been shifting to short form content, user created content and social platforms, so the competition for consumer attention is more fierce than ever. At the same time AI powered search is quickly rewriting the rulebook for how consumers find and consume content. Meanwhile, streaming has disrupted the old distribution and economic models for broadcasters. Layer on top the current economic uncertainty, and our customers are having to adapt, innovate and make tough choices to allocate their resources.
At the least, JWP Connatix can help relieve their technology stress. We offer video infrastructure for content management and playback; CTV streaming; digital rights protection, and advertising monetization solutions.
Monetization is key to the survival of most publishers, and we’re here to simplify that process for them so they can reinvest in the business and continue to focus on the reader experience and editorial storytelling, while we handle the tech.
Q: How has the use of video evolved for publishers?
JN: As digital publishing has evolved, so has the prominence of video. What was once a nice-to-have is now a key piece of both the editorial and monetization workflow for publishers. Video can be the whole story, like a news update or a video interview, or it can enhance a written story, like a video showing a deeper dive into the topic of an article. With the rise of contextual tools, video has also become a powerful engagement tool.
Publishers can create contextual playlists that pair videos with articles about similar topics, giving readers access to more information while also keeping them engaged and on-site longer. It’s also an extremely powerful tool for advertising – unlocking the ability for brands to complement a publisher’s content with their brand messages to increase affinity and engagement. And the growth of video-driven social platforms like TikTok has opened the door for new engaging formats that publishers are starting to take advantage of – like vertical video to boost mobile engagement with a full-screen viewing experience.
Q: AI is a huge focus for companies. How are you incorporating it into your business?
JN: Our contextual targeting tool, Deep Contextual™ is powered by AI technology including natural language processing and machine learning to understand the context of a video, scanning video, page, and audio to identify famous brands or individuals and turning those into categories for advertisers to target. We’ve also seen our publisher partners lean into AI to streamline workflows, like having AI engines parse through information to help an editor find a data point to enhance a story. We also leverage AI in our video studio offerings, using the technology to dynamically update videos with the latest sports scores and stock market updates so that publishers can add these into relevant articles without needing to create a new video every day or after every game.
Q: What are your plans to grow JWP Connatix?
JN: I am incredibly excited about the future of JWP Connatix. My short term goal is to continue to finalize all pieces of our merger, and we’re almost there. But we have an ambitious innovation agenda and look forward to introducing new products and solutions to help publishers and broadcasters build, manage and distribute their content, and to help them enhance advertising revenue. We are blessed to have a fantastic team of video technologists who can bring these new opportunities to life for us and our customers.
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