Brands, listen up: NewsCred and Outbrain have formed a strategic partnership which enables organisations to more effectively source content and then maximise its social reach.

The deal enables marketers to utilise NewsCred’s more than 4500 content providers in its Publisher Network, with NewsCred customers able to share content out through Outbrain Amplify, a platform which allows marketers to promote stories at scale.

“By integrating Outbrain directly into our Content Marketing Cloud, we’re truly delivering on the promise of technology platforms to make marketing simpler, better and more impactful,” said Scott Lehr, VP content and strategic partnerships at NewsCred.

“NewsCred and Outbrain’s partnership provides a simplified solution for brand owners and marketers to curate and distribute premium content that will resonate with their audiences,” he added.

Gregg Freishtat, senior vice president for strategic alliances at Outbrain, noted the fragmented nature of content marketing today as key to this deal.

“This relationship takes us a big step closer to removing that pain point, and that’s a huge opportunity for our customers,” he said.

Aside from the benefit to marketers, this represents a good news story for Outbrain, who has struggled to stay out of the news in recent weeks.

The content amplification provider was slapped down by the ASA because its module underneath stories promoting content from around the web was criticised for not being sufficiently signposted as promoted content.

The module, which serves as a monetisation platform for a variety of publishers and news sites, has caused fierce debate over the blurred lines between editorial and advertising, with many brands and organisations choosing to spend their advertising dollars on promoted content, rather than classic banner ads and click through rates.