Apture Adds Former About.com CEO Peter Horan To Board; Signs Up More Publishers
Apture is adding former About.com CEO Peter Horan to its board of directors. Horan was formerly the CEO of About.com, which was acquired by the New York Times for $410 million in 2005. Most recently, Horan was the CEO of IAC Media & Advertising.
Apture’s business model offers publishers a white-label version of Apture Highlights, which is being used by Scribd, The Financial Times and Reuters. CEO Tristan Harris is also announcing a number of new publishers are adopting Apture, including Economist.com, ScientificAmerican, BleacherReport.com, and Times of India. While Harris cannot comment on the amount of searches being made via Apture’s plug-in, he says that consumers stay on a publisher page with Apture two to three times longer than without the plug-in.
The startup, which has raised $4.1 million in funding, has also started to place ads in the browsing experience. Publishers pay a monthly licensing fee to have a branded, ad-free experience, but Apture now includes ads within searches for the consumer facing and free products.