At the recent VideoNuze Online Video Ad Summit, I did a really interesting fireside interview with Hayden Lynch, SVP of Ad Solutions and Innovation at Group Nine Media, which owns well-established passion brands like NowThis, Thrillist, The Dodo and Seeker. Collectively these brands drive over 6 billion video views per month, though just around 50 million are on owed and operated properties.

As Hayden explains, this creates huge challenges and opportunities for Group Nine, and he estimates approximately 10-20% of its current views are monetized. Hayden articulates why the distributed approach makes long-term business sense and what the company is doing to improve its monetization, especially with Facebook. He also describes the company’s strategy to move into linear, why it’s launching a half dozen shows on Snap, and the goals of its recent NewFront, among other topics.