Outbrain is launching a product allowing publishers to recommend content on each other’s platform

Outbrain, the network known for distributing garbage clickbait articles and ads on sites across the internet, is now going to offer a premium product that ensures that the articles recommended to folks at the bottom of their screens will be less garbage.

Onstage at the Code Media conference, Outbrain chief executive Yaron Galai announced Sphere, a premium exclusive publisher-to-publisher audience network.

The company is launching the network with premiere web sites like CNN, Getty, Time and Meredith to begin with… and will get other quality publishers up on this network over time, Galal said.

The content, Galal emphasized, would be “editorial only”.

The new product, known as Sphere, is an invitation-only network where publishers share each other’s content amongst the closed group. The company is pitching that by joining up with the Sphere network publishers will provide users with top-quality editorial content from around the best sites on the web — outside of their own content.

All this is to drive more engagement with users and steer them away from the advertising vacuums known as Facebook and Google.

The Sphere tool will reward engagement by financially incentivizing longer visits on site. Through Sphere, Outbrain will use a different algorithm to drive deeper engagement, the company said.