Scoop: Washington Post tripling investment in revenue technology Zeus

The Washington Post is tripling investment in Zeus, its revenue technology arm, sources tell Axios. The Post licenses Zeus products to other media companies to help them drive more ad revenue and create better user experiences.

Why it matters: The ad tech ecosystem for publishers for so long has been dominated by tech companies that don't know a lot about journalism or media. Now, media companies are creating their own tech solutions to become less reliant on them.

Driving the news: The Post is planning to add 20 new people to its a team of ten Zeus staffers, according to sources familiar with The Post's plans.

• The 20 new hires to Zeus will include engineers, sales leaders, data scientists and account managers.
• Zeus Performance, a software that gives sites better speed and ad view-ability, has launched with a handful of clients over the past 6 months, including The Dallas Morning News, Bonnier Corporation and Ultimate Gaming Group.
• Sources say it has more than two dozen new deals in the pipeline for 2020.
• Zeus is led by Jarrod Dicker, vice president of commercial technology and development.

The big picture: The first wave of publishing tech that came to market from media companies focused on content management systems. The second wave is focusing on revenue optimization tools.

Go deeper: Washington Post builds ad network for publishers to take on Big Tech