• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 20, 2014

Per the pact, Taboola’s content recommendations will now appear across 40 of Tribune Broadcasting’s local television sites from KTLA.com in Los Angeles to PIX11.com in New York.

The deal also encompasses 80 of Tribune Broadcasting’s native mobile apps, which Taboola CEO Adam Singolda described as critical to the deal.

“As we move into a world where most people will browse the Web from 4.5-inch screens … publishers of today are tasked with how to reach and engage audiences on those,” Singolda said on Wednesday.

The 40 Tribune Broadcasting sites -- including CBS, ABC, Fox, NBC, CW, and MyNetworkTV affiliates -- amount to roughly 46 million unique monthly visitors, the company says, citing comScore data.

As traditional media businesses continue to decline, publishers and networks are relying more heavily on digital operations to produce revenue. Despite its negative connotations, this has led the most distinguished media companies to embrace native advertising — and help content-recommendation widgets from Taboola, Outbrain, and other native ad companies proliferate.

Prior to the Tribune Broadcasting deal, Taboola already claimed to serve over 150 billion content recommendations to over 400 million unique visitors, on a monthly basis.

Clients include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Television, Hearst, Gannett, USA Today, and The Hollywood Reporter.
 
Late last year, Taboola began turning a profit after pulling in revenues at an annual run rate of $100 million. After acquiring supply-side platform Perfect Market, this summer, Taboola predicted that its run rate would increase to $250 million a year.

More broadly, native advertising’s star continues to rise. eMarketer expects the native ad niche to account for $2.85 billion, this year.