JWX, the video expertise firm previously referred to as JW Participant, on February 19, 2026, introduced the launch of a product referred to as Vertical Video, designed to let publishers embed swipeable, full-screen video feeds immediately on their very own web sites. The announcement, produced from New York, arrives at a second when publishers are contending with declining search referrals and are actively trying to find codecs that maintain audiences on-site moderately than ceding consideration to social platforms.

The product is, at its core, a format transplant. Publishers have watched youthful audiences develop up scrolling by means of TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, and have struggled to breed that consumption behavior on their very own properties. JWX’s reply is a light-weight implementation: a single line of JavaScript that connects to a writer’s present infrastructure with out requiring engineering groups to overtake the advert stack, modify content material workflows, or undertake prolonged integration cycles, in keeping with the corporate’s announcement.

What the product truly does

At launch, Vertical Video permits publishers that already produce vertical content material – together with clips initially made for social platforms – to repurpose that materials into totally branded, natively monetized video experiences hosted on their very own domains. Publishers retain management over the look, really feel, and branding, with no dependency on third-party platform algorithms to distribute the content material.

The technical implementation is deliberately minimal. In accordance with JWX, the one-line JavaScript method is a deliberate differentiator for technical patrons who wish to launch with out rebuilding workflows. That issues in an atmosphere the place engineering sources are constrained and publishers want to maneuver rapidly. The product additionally integrates with JWX’s Technique Guidelines characteristic, which permits A/B testing throughout vertical video and different codecs. By that device, publishers can run data-driven optimization in opposition to core key efficiency indicators whereas maintaining operations easy – operating experiments with out spinning up separate technical infrastructure for every check.

Dynamic content material supply and contextual promoting

Two capabilities underpin the product’s monetization structure. The primary is Dynamic Content material Supply, which adapts video in real-time primarily based on person habits, location, and machine kind. The second is Contextual Promoting, which serves advertisements aligned with viewer pursuits and searching patterns. Each are designed to make the stock extra invaluable to advertisers with out requiring publishers to disrupt their present advert stack.

The product unlocks what JWX describes as extra promoting surfaces – new stock positions that publishers can monetize with out creating new workflows for content material groups. For advertisers, the format presents a social-adjacent atmosphere on premium writer properties, probably combining the engagement traits of vertical video with the brand-safety assurances of an editorially managed website.

The Augie acquisition and content material repurposing

A major sensible problem for publishers adopting vertical video is the format hole. Most information, sports activities, and leisure publishers have deep archives of horizontal, 16:9 video. Reformatting that materials for 9:16 vertical supply has traditionally been gradual and labor-intensive.

JWX addresses this by means of its acquisition of Augie, rebranded as JWX Studio. In accordance with the corporate, this AI-assisted business video studio functionality permits publishers to rapidly remodel present long-form and horizontal content material into vertical video experiences, extending the content material’s lifespan and attain. JWX has additionally signaled that it’s going to quickly give publishers the power to generate vertical video immediately from present video libraries – a functionality not but obtainable at launch however described as a part of the corporate’s broader imaginative and prescient of serving to publishers do extra with what they have already got.

The Occasions-Picayune supplied direct testimony on the implementation expertise. “JWX is an indispensable companion as we proceed to uncover new alternatives for partaking our viewers, and Vertical Video is a superb addition to their product portfolio,” stated Kyle Whitfield, Vice President of Shopper Income at The Occasions-Picayune. “Past its strategic worth, Vertical Video has been remarkably straightforward to implement, serving to us get extra partaking content material onto our website with out slowing down our workflows.”

The context: publishers underneath structural stress

The timing of the JWX launch displays a structural disaster in digital publishing. Google Web Search traffic to news publishers declined from 51% to 27% between 2023 and the fourth quarter of 2025, in keeping with NewzDash evaluation of over 400 publishers worldwide. On the identical time, Google Discover became the dominant traffic source for news organizations, accounting for roughly 68% of Google referrals – a focus that creates acute vulnerability to algorithm modifications.

That vulnerability turned concrete in December 2025. Google’s December 2025 core update triggered severe Discover traffic collapse for some publishers within 48 hours, with some operators reporting 70-85% declines in day by day customer counts throughout what is generally the height income season of the yr. For publishers who had spent years constructing Uncover-dependent site visitors methods, the replace was a pointy reminder of the dangers of counting on a single exterior platform for viewers distribution.

The broader development extends past algorithm updates. Google’s Network advertising revenue – the revenue share it passes to publishers through AdSense, AdMob, and Ad Manager – declined 1% to $7.4 billion in the second quarter of 2025, whereas YouTube promoting revenues grew 13% to $9.8 billion throughout the identical interval. The divergence illustrates a structural shift: consideration and the income hooked up to it are migrating away from the open net and towards platform-controlled environments.

Publishers have been conscious of this for a while. A survey of 50 U.S. and UK publishers conducted in July 2025 found that 84% could identify fewer than 25% of their website visitors, whereas 50% expressed average concern about AI-driven site visitors discount and 52% targeted on engagement and neighborhood constructing as main social media aims.

A crowded however nonetheless nascent market

JWX isn’t the primary firm to aim to convey social-style vertical video to writer websites. Outbrain launched a product called Moments in October 2024, which transforms static article pages into swipeable vertical video feeds in a fashion just like social media platforms. Media.net launched Bytes in November 2025, its personal vertical video engagement and promoting resolution for premium publishers on the open net, backed by survey information exhibiting that 90% of U.S. shoppers expressed openness to viewing short-form vertical video on writer websites past social media.

The Media.web survey, which polled greater than 1,000 U.S. shoppers, discovered that 73% watch short-form video a number of occasions per day, with 81% viewing totally on smartphones in vertical format. A separate discovering – that 75% of shoppers indicated they’d keep longer on writer websites that includes movies tailor-made to their pursuits – factors to the engagement upside publishers are chasing with these merchandise.

What JWX brings that differs from some opponents is its present relationship with the writer expertise stack. As a video platform with roots going again to JW Participant’s founding in 2004, the corporate already serves a broad base of publishers throughout content material administration, video-on-demand supply, and advert monetization. Vertical Video is due to this fact an extension of an present business relationship moderately than a brand new entry level, probably decreasing adoption friction for present prospects.

The strategic argument JWX is making

John Nardone, CEO of JWX, framed the product when it comes to a elementary shift in what publishers want to perform. “Publishers are grappling with a elementary strategic shift as they transfer from merely attracting site visitors to deeply partaking audiences throughout a fragmented panorama,” stated Nardone. “To succeed, publishers should reclaim the first position of proudly owning client consideration and constructing routine return habits. Vertical Video helps them do that, by bringing a social-like expertise to publishers’ personal properties, guaranteeing that audiences of all generations have the chance to deepen their relationship with content material.”

The phrase “routine return habits” is important. Publishers that rely on search or social referrals purchase readers transactionally – a person arrives from a hyperlink, consumes content material, and leaves with out essentially forming any ongoing reference to the publication. Vertical video, the argument goes, creates a feed-like atmosphere that trains audiences to return immediately, constructing the sort of routine engagement that social platforms have cultivated over years.

Whether or not that principle holds at scale relies on elements past the expertise itself. Publishers should have the content material, the viewers improvement infrastructure, and the promoting demand to make vertical surfaces commercially viable. JWX’s pitch is that the technical barrier is now low sufficient that publishers can experiment with out main dedication, utilizing A/B testing by means of Technique Guidelines to measure impression earlier than making deeper investments.

The corporate positions Vertical Video as a part of a broader orchestration layer underneath the banner of “Create As soon as, Adapt In every single place” – a framework that connects content material creation, distribution, viewers engagement, and monetization inside a single workflow. The acquisition of Aug X Labs, now JWX Studio, sits inside that framework because the AI-powered content material transformation layer that allows publishers to transform horizontal archives into vertical-ready materials with out rebuilding their manufacturing workflows.

For advertisers, the product represents an try and convey the efficiency traits of social vertical video – excessive consideration, full-screen engagement, mobile-native format – into premium writer environments. That mixture, if it proves out in engagement information, might assist larger CPMs and extra subtle advertiser demand for media sponsorship merchandise on writer websites, at a time when news outlets like Time, CNN, and The New York Times have already been adding more vertical video to their sites and apps to meet advertiser expectations shaped by social media.

Timeline

Abstract

Who: JWX (previously JW Participant), a video expertise firm headquartered in New York, introduced the product. Kyle Whitfield, Vice President of Shopper Income at The Occasions-Picayune, served as an early adopter and supplied public testimony. John Nardone is the CEO of JWX.

What: The launch of a product referred to as Vertical Video – a swipeable, social-like full-screen video expertise that publishers can embed on their very own web sites utilizing a single line of JavaScript. The product helps content material repurposing from social platforms and present horizontal archives, native monetization, contextual promoting, and A/B testing by means of JWX’s Technique Guidelines device.

When: Introduced on February 19, 2026, with content material transformation capabilities by means of JWX Studio (previously Augie) obtainable at launch and direct vertical video technology from present libraries deliberate for a future launch.

The place: New York. The product is designed for deployment on publisher-owned web sites globally, working inside a writer’s present infrastructure with out requiring tech stack modifications.

Why: Publishers face structural decline in search referral site visitors – Google Net Search site visitors to information publishers fell from 51% to 27% between 2023 and 2025 – alongside unpredictable Uncover algorithm modifications. JWX argues publishers have to rebuild routine viewers relationships on owned properties moderately than relying on exterior platforms, and that vertical video codecs acquainted from social media supply a path to deeper engagement and new promoting stock surfaces.


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