The era of “managed decline” is over; the era of existential clarity has begun. Publishers are no longer guessing what the post-platform world looks like. We are living in it.
Unauthorized ID stuffing, rampant reselling and misaligned signals inflict incredible damage on the programmatic ecosystem. If publishers want to compete with the walled gardens, we must raise our standards.
Our industry has done a terrible job rewarding publishers for monetization choices that align their supply to quality and outcomes vs. short-term yield bumps. But is it overly optimistic to think The Trade Desk’s recent moves prove that’s changing?
To get to the heart of the TID debate, you have to understand the definition of a healthy marketplace and how our tendency to limit transparency for the other side of the supply chain is holding us back.
The fate of the open web will be decided on who controls the data that drives monetization and the AI that determines distribution. Google controls both, and proposed remedies to its ad tech monopoly do not address this imbalance.
Publishers must coalesce to gain a credible bargaining position and stop the bleeding caused by AI search. From there, we must put the processes in place to actually operate a licensing mechanism.
Transaction IDs can benefit the ecosystem, but not if they result in information asymmetry. Solutions need to be found that reduce bad duplication but do not reduce bid density.
Human-made content will remain the most important source of information for consumers online. And our appreciation for human expression will only grow as we experience derivative outputs created by AI models.
As the quality of answer engines improves, people will click through to publisher websites less often. The solution isn’t to wage war against AI. It’s time to build a sustainable future for all stakeholders.
AI agents and so-called “super signal aggregators” are being framed as the saviors of premium publishers and advertisers who prioritize high-quality media. But these technologies could perpetuate programmatic’s worst practices.
The return of in-banner video has resulted in a deluge of cheap video supply flooding the open web, driving down CPM rates for dedicated video inventory and creating user experience and ad quality concerns.
With no-click generative AI search gaining steam, here’s how publishers can thrive when search traffic disappears.
The past two decades have left publishers struggling to effectively compete with “easy buttons” from tech giants and UGC behemoths. The ad tech industry must proactively support publishers with solutions tailored to their needs.
The wave of ad tech headlines in recent weeks represents a long overdue moment of reckoning for companies who (still) hold disproportionate control over publishers’ website traffic and revenue potential.
The curation debate is missing a critical piece: standardized reporting. Without it, curation risks leaving publishers in the dark about its actual value.
Curation is amazing – for SSPs. The question publishers continually ask is, “Is curation good for us?” That’s the wrong question.
The first half of this decade has left publishers reeling from a pandemic jab and an AI uppercut that rearranged our reality and knocked us to our knees. Here’s how pubs and their ad tech partners can punch back in the years ahead.
Solutions that fundamentally address the issues curation attempts to solve already exist. The problem is that none of these solutions have been adopted by the buy side.
A Google breakup could lead to a more fragmented market, with multiple smaller entities competing for ad space. This will almost certainly result in increased competition and higher ad rates for publishers.
The programmatic open marketplace is designed to sustain the business models of ad tech, agencies and consultancies, rather than serving the interests of advertisers, audiences and media owners. It cannot be fixed. It must be rebuilt.
Competing agendas are limiting the tools publishers have at their disposal in ways that aren’t always primarily motivated by user privacy. Here are five things about privacy in digital media that should keep publishers up at night.
Publishers are in the business of selling their readers’ attention to advertisers. But in response to consumer preferences and regulatory pressure, publishers should reposition themselves as champions of data dignity.
Instead of erasing the idea of brand safety, we should be developing smarter, more nuanced solutions that protect both news publishers and advertisers.
Halfway through 2024, however, many publishers are feeling hopeful, especially as election season heats up and puts a focus on news – a category with an extremely engaged audience, writes Connatix CRO Jenn Chen.
Setting price floors can unlock additional revenue. But only by setting the “right” floor for any given impression can you increase and not harm yield.
Who gets to decide what is premium? Is it dangerous to outsource that decision to The Trade Desk (or any one DSP)? And how should publishers position themselves within the future of this so-called premium internet?
Even if the industry finds a way to replace the cookie, it won’t matter if publishers no longer have traffic to monetize.
Why does MFA continue to thrive? MFA monetization benefits everyone in the ad tech ecosystem that collects a revenue share. That includes both SSPs and DSPs.
If advertisers feel like they need to go out of their way to support journalism, that is proof the programmatic open marketplace is broken. Yet we can’t place all the responsibility on the buy-side; media owners need to develop effective strategies to support themselves.
Continued low concentration of brand spend in the mid- and long-tail retailer segments could pose an existential threat to grocery businesses, negatively impacting local communities.
