Brands as publishers: why traditional media should be scared

MediaBriefing reporting:

Advertisers pay publishers for access to their audience, but what happens when brands reach their customers via their own digital products using their own content?
This is happening across medialand. And most worryingly for traditional publishers, brand-produced media can be interesting, engaging and effective.
We heard of two such brand-driven products at the Content Marketing Association's latest breakfast event this morning.

The Spirit of '45

Developed by The Project Factory, this interactive website was developed for Film4 to promote Ken Loach's film about the post Second World War Labour Party manifesto that led to the creation of the welfare state.
...Given the dry subject matter, The Project Factory was tasked with creating an engaging way to explain the issues the film was about with a focus on what life was like for Brits before the end of the war. 
It uses interactive videos and timelines and allows people to translate basic details such as age and profession into a profile of what their life would have been like pre-1945.
Both asthetically and functionally it is similar to the interactive storytelling constructed by newspapers such as the Guardian's Firestorm or the New York Times's Snowfall, but it's purpose is to sell cinema tickets. 
http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/cma-content-marketing-brands-direct