SendtoNews CEO Matthew Watson discusses our Online Video Platform, industry disruption and what it takes to thrive in digital video in a recent interview with Authority Magazine.
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Matthew Watson is CEO of SendtoNews, an online video platform that helps digital publishers increase revenue and enhance the experience by supplying technology, monetization and content that keeps users more engaged and on digital properties longer. SendtoNews has partnerships with 100’s of video content providers, including MLB, NHL, NBA, NASCAR, AP, Bloomberg, Rolling Stone, Conde Nast, and Cheddar. Every month, SendtoNews delivers more than 1 billion videos to over 45 million unique views to publishers like the New York Post, Chicago Tribune, SF Gate, Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle and over 1800 other newspaper.com, broadcast.com, radio.coms and native digital publishers.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I’ve been really lucky and honestly never really had a plan beyond getting an education. After graduating law school, I was fortunate to get on with a huge national firm that at the time had a nascent technology practice full of opportunities to learn. The practice of law was interesting but nowhere near as interesting as the businesses that we were assisting. One of them was an early stage startup in digital imaging right at the advent of digital imaging and gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. The opportunity seemed clear to me even though it was early stage. I’ve never looked back and essentially have been stumbling into one pioneering company after another. I started a web application firewall company with a couple buddies and we did it virtually because we didn’t have enough money to ship it on appliances, and I hated hardware business. The cloud came along and we hit the jackpot. SendtoNews was similar. It got started just as digital video became an opportunity and a problem.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
SendtoNews was born out of disruption, so it’s our natural state of being. We were founded by a traditional newsroom broadcaster who saw news publishers struggle to get video content onto their digital properties. In streamlining that process and solving for all aspects of it, we disrupted the model of how publishers, content providers and advertisers engage users and maximize revenue with digital video.
This foundation has kept us on the cutting edge of the digital video industry and has allowed us to deliver a transformative service. Innovations include an artificial intelligence powered video player designed to be the fastest and easiest way for publishers to get monetized video onto their sites, extending live-streaming opportunities for content partners like the PGA TOUR to over 1800 publishers, and bespoke, contextually relevant ad campaigns for brands that have delivered record conversions.
Our disruption comes from a place of wanting to help all our partners thrive using digital video. Digital publishers needed a reliable online video platform that reduces costs, increases revenue and keeps users on page. Content providers needed to get their videos in front of more audiences than just their owned and operated properties. Brands and advertisers needed trustworthy, contextual relevant and brand safe environments for their creatives. When you think about what you’re doing as a benefit to the industry at large rather than a benefit to your bottom line, the disruption presents itself.
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