A group of political news sites are forming an ad-sales alliance to more effectively compete with Google and Facebook heading into the 2020 election cycle.
The Washington Free Beacon, the Daily Caller, Raw Story, AlterNet, Mediaite, and Law & Crime are coming together to form the Digital News Alliance, which will offer marketers "custom ad packages aimed at politically engaged readers," according to the Wall Street Journal.
"This alliance will help fortify digital journalism’s position in challenging market conditions and will bolster our continuing efforts to provide high-quality investigative reporting to our readers," said Aaron Harison, president of the Free Beacon.
Facebook and Google control almost 60 percent of digital-ad spending. Political ad spending is expected to approach $10 billion in the 2020 cycle, and almost a third of that is projected to be directed to digital ad spending.
The alliance will offer packages that include "traditional on-site and newsletter-ad placements, sponsorships and a slate of custom content options to political campaigns, advocacy groups, political-action committees and other customers."
The sites included in the alliance "have over 145 million pageviews per month, 11 million Facebook followers, and 1.1 million Twitter followers," according to a press release.
The alliance is in talks with other publishers in an effort to expand its membership.