BuzzFeed Bucks Banner Ads, Rolling Stone’s App, Google’s Travel Plans

The Content Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

BuzzFeed Trades Banner Ads for Curated Content

NewsCred reports that BuzzFeed is increasingly integrating curated content and social advertising into its website. In the past, it has collaborated with Schick, Toyota, and Kraft to produce easily shareable content meant to go viral.

As Lyndsey of NewCred points out, “Working hand in hand, social advertisers and content providers are not only redefining marketing strategy in the era of social media, but they are also reinvigorating the declining news industry. Through curation, brands can save time and leave the content-creation to experts while focusing on their own business strategies.”

Rolling Stone’s New Music App for iPhone Comes with Content

Music lovers rejoice — Rolling Stone has launched a music app complete with live news updates, as well as photos and videos from its website, reports AdWeek.

It is available for download on the iTunes App Store and “marks the first time that the Rolling Stone brand has broken out its news content.”

Google Buys Frommer’s Brand

Google purchased Frommer’s Travel Guides for $23 million from John Wiley & Sons, according to PaidContent.org.

A possible plan for Google will be to combine it with Zagat, which they bought last September for $151 million.

The Difference Between Earned, Owned, Paid, and Shared Media

These days, it’s about shared media, which means that companies and media outlets are combining forces to create content.

Lee Oden of ClickZ spells out the differences between shared, paid, earned, and owned media, and how all four are affecting the way brands are now advertising.

“Engaging consumers where they live online and in ways that they care about represents the path to helping brands become more relevant where it matters online,” he writes. “A holistic approach to media and what you do to optimize that media to attract, engage, and convert prospects to buyers and buyers to evangelists is more of a perfect storm than an apocalypse.”

Youth Turning to YouTube to Listen to Music 

Teenagers in the United States listen to music on YouTube more than any other platform, according to a new survey. Almost two-thirds of teens chose YouTube over CDs and the radio.

The Wall Street Journal reports that adults greatly differ in terms of listening habits — 67 percent tune into the radio, 61 percent put on CDs, 44 percent watch YouTube videos, 32 percent switch on Pandora, and 29 percent open up iTunes.

HuffPost Live Begins Streaming 

On Monday, the Huffington Post launched HuffPost Live, which features eight hours of news coverage every week day from New York and four hours from Los Angeles, according to its website.

Dubbed a “platform for engagement” by HuffPost Founding Editor Roy Sekoff, the streaming news channel will showcase 10 hosts and offer people around the globe a chance to join in on their webcams.

Cosmo’s Iconic Editor Dies at Age 90

Helen Gurley Brown, who edited Cosmopolitan from 1965 until 1997, died Monday. Brown, who was 90, wrote the best-seller “Sex and the Single Girl,” published in 1962. The New York Times’ Margalit Fox writes, “By turns celebrated and castigated, Ms. Brown was for decades a highly visible, though barely visible, public presence.”