Seeing Native Advertising Production via the Business Model Lens: The Case of Forbes's BrandVoice Unit

Although the production side of advertising has interested scholars for decades, research has focused primarily on isolated agency practices and interactions with clients. Discussion has been limited regarding how an ad agency coordinates and connects multiple activities and relationships, and how the agency setup has evolved over time. This question has become particularly interesting in the age of digitization, in which new forms of advertising require new ways of organizing production. In a case study of Forbes's BrandVoice unit, this article specifically examines native advertising production via the business model lens, illustrating how BrandVoice consciously borrows production logics from journalism and distribution practices of platform economies. This study contributes to the understanding of the morphing of advertising production and agency work in the digital economy.