User blog comment:Brandon Rhea/Making Ads Better: The Basics/@comment-26402117-20170116202305/@comment-20644-20170117194820

To answer your questions:


 * 1) Where do the few sponsored article banners fit in the bigger picture of direct ads? Sponsored news and stories articles are indeed sold directly, so they're a great way to work directly with advertisers who want to reach a specific audience. I would say it's representative of how direct advertising works in general, since the advertiser wants to reach a particular set of fans.
 * 2) Is there more to the changes than the direct ad transition? I would say, stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 of the blog series. I think that'll answer your questions!