LinkedIn and Pinterest are testing programs that let publishers sell ads on their videos and pages, respectively, in exchange for a cut of the resulting revenue
Context & Ripple Effects
Both platforms had already built video-ad infrastructure: Pinterest expanded video ads across search results and feeds, while LinkedIn tested autoplay video ads. These publisher programs extend that inventory model by making publishers participants in selling and monetizing it.
For LinkedIn, the test also foreshadowed a broader publisher push: subsequent coverage described a publisher-focused video ad program and mobile News Banner. Pinterest’s experiment arrives as the company reports rising users and ad revenue, making additional monetizable page inventory strategically relevant.
First-order effects
- Publishers in the tests gain a new route to sell advertising against their LinkedIn videos or Pinterest pages, while sharing the proceeds with the platforms.
- LinkedIn and Pinterest can add publisher-led sales capacity and potentially broaden the inventory available to advertisers without owning the underlying editorial production.
Second-order effects
- Publishers will have to weigh the incremental revenue against platform control over ad formats, measurement, and the revenue split; platforms that offer clearer sales tools or better economics can become more attractive distribution partners.
- The programs put pressure on other content platforms to pair video and page distribution with more explicit publisher monetization, rather than relying solely on creators or platform-sold ads.
Third-order effects
- If these tests scale, publisher distribution may shift toward revenue-sharing arrangements where platforms provide audience, ad technology, and demand while publishers supply context-rich inventory.
- The durable question will be whether revenue sharing gives publishers enough control and predictable economics to sustain investment in platform-native content, or further concentrates advertising leverage with the platforms.
The trend: Social and professional platforms are turning publisher content into shared commercial inventory, tying distribution more directly to ad-revenue participation.