The Ad Saturation Point
Everyone is trying to sell you something, even your video games.
Roblox wants to be an ad company. Yes, Roblox, Fort Night’s less cool cousin. The gaming platform that allows would-be game programmers to make minigames your younger brother loves but you outgrew now wants to control all the advertising its users see.
And according to Roblox, there are a lot of users. In the company’s most recent quarterly report, it claims 79.5 active daily users log on to the platform. Sure, 45 percent of those users are kids under 14. And another 22 percent are under 25. But those users spend money. Its quarterly revenue was near $900 million, up just over 30 percent year-over-year.
But a lot of that revenue comes from in-game purchases. Roblox would instead like to continue to build on its growing advertising business, companies creating direct activations inside games. Those might be custom, branded skins or targeted microgames. To make that easier, Roblox created its own Ad Manager, essentially pushing out third-party ad providers in hopes of instead gaining a larger share of ad revenue for itself.
And while this all doesn’t seem like that big of a deal—Roblox is just another platform looking to trade eyeballs for dollars—it’s part of the bigger trend that has been growing exponentially over the last couple of years, namely that everyone wants to be an ad platform now. Companies like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and others that have amassed any kind of audience have realized that they’re not just retailers anymore. They have a direct line to customers right at the moment of purchase. They’re the bottom of the funnel. They have the user data and the customer base to significantly impact the return on any ad investment in ways that traditional media has never been capable of. And it has changed where advertising dollars go.
The way it used to work in the old days was called the three-legged stool. First, you created a media product—a magazine, newspaper, TV show, or whatever. That was leg No. 1. Next, you targeted a specific group. You gave them something they wanted—a funny sitcom or a monthly about model trains. And they showed up. Leg No. 2. Finally, you sold ads, be it slick, glossy pages or 30-second spots, to companies that wanted to reach those people in hopes that, one day, they’d buy your widget.
Digital advertising has, of course, changed this. Now, companies are much closer to consumers. While Facebook and Google still operate on the three-legged stool principle, they’re two clicks away from making a sale—something even the best TV commercial could never do. The same goes for sponsored content on a legacy media site or an influencer video on TikTok. Those kinds of ads are designed to push people to that next page where a company can hopefully seal the deal.
But when it’s a sponsored link on Walmart or Amazon, things change. You hit people the moment they want to make a purchase. And that’s why retail media—i.e. any advertising on a retail site—has been growing exponentially. According to GroupM, the world’s biggest media buyer, retail media represented just 1.5 percent of global ad revenue 10 years ago. Now, it's expected to grow by 15 percent in 2024 to $153.5 billion. That’s just over roughly a seventh of the total global ad market. It’s growing so fast that it’s on track to surpass TV revenue by 2028.
That matters because, like the pivot to platforms years ago, the shift to retail media and niche platforms, including gaming sites like Roblox, Minecraft, Fort Night, and more, will continue to strip ad dollars from legacy media. Even worse, it will take away affiliate revenue, that bit of cash a company makes when someone clicks on a link from your “Best Mattresses” story and makes a purchase. When someone instead searches for “Best Mattresses” on Amazon, Jeff Bezos and friends will not only grab some revenue from the sale but also from the sponsored link you clicked. It’s a win-win for big retailers.
But if you’re someone who likes journalism, whether it’s the latest gossip or a story that opens your eyes to the world (see “Read of the Week” below), then it’s in your best interest to go to your favorite media site first. See if they have a “Best Mattresses” story. Click and buy from there. Because when everyone is trying to sell you something, from the largest retailers to a little kids’ video game, you can be strategic with your purchase—and maybe support something you love in the process.
Read of the Week
JMM is a full-on nerd about a few things: music, Star Wars, Star Wars Legos, basically anything Star Wars. One of the few non-Star-Wars-related things JMM loves: waves. Not joking. Most of the blame for this obsession goes to former Oprah editor Susan Casey’s excellent book The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean. Some also falls on HBO’s “100 Foot Wave,” which tracks Garrett McNamara’s obsession with surfing Nazare, Portugal, which, thanks to weather and underwater geography, spawns giant monsters every winter. And JMM never passes up a video about liquid mountains crashing into something.
All of which is to explain why Cullen Murphy’s Atlantic story “Point Nemo, The Most Remote Place on Earth,” is a fascinating read. About the oceanic pole of inaccessibility—i.e. that place that is the furthest from land anywhere on the planet—the story tries to describe a place few people have ever visited. How it was first identified only 30-ish years ago. How, if you visit, your closest neighbors are on the International Space Station as it flies overhead. How its weather can be some of Earth’s most violent. How the waves become epic. And how one man and his son became the first people to go for a swim there.
Murphy’s story is why we read—and why we as journalists continue to tell stories. Plus, it’s about waves.
Internships, Fellowships, and More
• Trill, a website written for and run by college students in the U.K. and U.S., is looking for new writers for its Young Writers Program. It’s a six-month program. You work remotely with editors while you create content for the site. You have to produce one story every two weeks or one video per month. The program is unpaid, though Trill promotes the idea that you can earn credit for the internship (which you can). For more info, check out this flier.
• The Wall Street Journal wants a summer 2025 podcast intern. Geared toward college juniors, the program is designed to give students real-world newsroom experience. You need to have a prior internship and understand audio production and reporting. Being in New York is a requirement. Pay is $28.57 an hour. Get more info here.
• Business Insider is looking for a Life Editorial Fellow. The six-month position begins in January. You’ll work remotely writing content for several of Business Insider’s brands and partners. You’ll be paid $20 an hour and get a chance to work directly with BI’s senior editors and staff. Get more info and apply here. Interested in other Business Insider gigs? Check out this list which includes a Special Projects fellowship and a Graphic Design fellowship.
• The Minneapolis Star Tribune is on the hunt for summer interns. There are multiple positions available, from photo/video gigs to food and culture internships. You can see the complete list here. The positions pay $850 a week, and you’ll be on the job for ten weeks. You’ll need to be in Minneapolis or St. Paul for the summer. Applications are due by Nov. 1. You can apply from the paper’s LinkedIn site.
• The McClatchy 2025 Summer Internship Program has positions available at its 30 news outlets across the country. The 10-week positions are paid variable hourly wages depending on the market. You can check general information about the internship program here, and you can see the complete list of positions here. Applications are due by Dec. 31, though considering the volume of applicants for these spots you might want to submit your materials sooner than later.
• The Dallas Morning News wants a full-time summer intern for 2025. You’ll be paid $18 an hour for 40 hours a week for 10 to 12 weeks of work. You’ll have to be in Dallas, of course, and it’s highly recommended you have a car to help you get around. Applications are due by Nov. 1. You can apply here.
• Be one of the first to apply for the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation summer 2025 communications internship. You’ll work on the non-profit’s magazine, help with its website, and maybe even end up working its RAGBRAI booth (though be forewarned, you may see Prof. Inman in spandex; sorry). Pay is $15 an hour. You’ll work full-time. Applications aren’t due until Feb. 3, you can get a jump on it now here.
• American Public Media, the organization behind Marketplace and great podcasts like “How We Survive,” “This is Uncomfortable,” and “Don’t Ask Tig,” is looking for a spring Marketplace podcast intern. You’ll need to work hybrid in either Washington D.C., Los Angeles, or New York, but you will be working full-time and be paid $20 an hour. Don’t want to move? You can apply for the spring full-time Audio internship, which is fully remote. There’s also a remote Marketplace Digital internship, a Marketplace D.C. Bureau internship, and multiple St. Paul-based positions in brand solutions, radio reporting, and media production. All positions run from Jan. 6 – Jun 6. While there is no application deadline, they want positions filled by Dec. 6. Best to get your applications in sooner rather than later.
• Bloomberg News is also hunting for its summer 2025 interns. The company has positions in New York, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles available. You’ll work 40 hours a week for 10 weeks. You’ll work with a variety of teams. Pay is $20-$25 an hour. For more details, click here.
Got Some Tasty Treats?
Do you have some essential info or did you just get to hang out with Snoop Dogg’s best friend Martha Stewart like Architectural Digest Senior Editor Melissa Studach (Mags, ’17)? If so, then let JMM know by sending that juicy news on over to jeff.inman@drake.edu. JMM will treat it like Allrecipes Dotdash Meredith Fellow Tori Soliz’s interview with (squee) Stanley Tucci and tell everyone about it.
Finally, don’t feed the cows.