Publishers

Gaming might have an audience of all ages, but if a brand is just going to slap an ad into a game, then it might as well not bother. “If you just want to run a simple media activation, frankly, you don’t need gaming for that – media can run anywhere,” said Alexandre Tan, VP of […]

Former Xandr exec Kirk McDonald will join GroupM as its CEO for North America, the company said Tuesday. McDonald, who’s been serving as the interim head of AT&T-owned Xandr since CEO Brian Lesser stepped down in March, will report directly to GroupM Global CEO Christian Juhl. McDonald will be replaced by AT&T exec Mike Welch […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. State Of The TransUnion Credit bureau and consumer data provider TransUnion acquired cross-channel marketing company Signal on Monday (not to be confused with TruSignal, the predictive analytics and data firm TransUnion acquired in May of last year). TransUnion didn’t share a deal price. The […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Agency Woes Dentsu is yet another agency group that didn’t have a pretty Q2, as organic revenues declined 17.3% to $166 million. International arm Dentsu Aegis Network dragged down the group as organic revenue declined 20% to $100 million, compared to a 12% drop […]

This Isn’t Even My Final Form Will Sony acquire anime streaming service Crunchyroll from AT&T and pair it with its existing service Funimation? According to The Information, the big sticking point keeping that dream from happening is the price: AT&T reportedly wants $1.5 billion. While the initial move to offload Crunchyroll began in May, it […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Paul Bannister, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at CafeMedia. Ads.txt has been a standard for several years now and has become something that we take for granted. That’s a good thing, as it speaks to […]

Integral Ad Science and Channel Factory, a brand suitability and ad performance platform for YouTube, released a joint product on Wednesday that combines content curation with optimization and measurement for YouTube campaigns. The product, dubbed Channel Science (a portmanteau of their names), is generally available, but only on a manual basis for now. The companies […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Rules Don’t Apply  Apple is intercepting site traffic to publishers on Apple News+ and redirecting it to the Apple News app through updates to iOS 14 and MacOS Big Sur. The move not only cannibalizes publishers’ subscription audiences, but puts privacy-conscious Apple in a […]

Meredith introduced its Data Studio Monday, a platform built out of its extensive first-party data set to help brands better understand their consumers both on and off Meredith’s properties. Data Studio is a way for Meredith to diversify its revenue away from advertising and monetize its massive first-party data set. And it is also available […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Brace For Streaming Just as NBCU plans to reorg to accommodate streaming, so too will WarnerMedia. The Information reports that the AT&T-owned entertainment company will soon unveil a “major reorganization” that will result in layoffs and the promotion of Andy Forssell, a streaming exec, […]

Johnny Ryan, a professional thorn in the side of big tech and ad tech, left browser company Brave this week to go nuclear on data rights. He’s now a senior fellow at Open Markets Institute, a think tank focused on antitrust issues, and a senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, a Dublin-based […]

Exchanges actually paid their publishers on time more often than not during the height of the pandemic. It’s counterintuitive, but true, said Hanna Kassis, CEO and founder of OAREX, a company that helps finance publishers by purchasing their digital media and advertising receivables. The economic environment is brutal. For example, hundreds of ad tech companies […]

Brand safety is always top of mind for advertisers. But it’s become more important than ever as issues from coronavirus misinformation to the ongoing Facebook ad boycott dominate industry headlines. For Joshua Lowcock, chief digital officer at UM and global brand safety officer at IPG Mediabrands, the renewed focus is an opportunity for advertisers to […]

Roku did way better than the TV ad market at large in Q2, despite a major pullback in ad spend from brands across the board. Platform revenues, which include advertising, grew 46% YoY to $244.8 million, Roku said Wednesday during its Q2 earnings call. Overall, revenues increased 42% YoY to $356 million in the quarter. […]

The pandemic has made The New York Times even less reliant on advertising than it was before. The New York Times added a record 669,000 digital subscriptions in the second quarter as people sought news about the coronavirus pandemic and followed coverage of the protests after the killing of George Floyd. The 8.4% increase in […]

Disney’s Q3 revenue plummeted 42% to $11.8 billion, as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc across its lines of business. Promising increases in its paid streaming subscriptions were far outweighed by the closure (and gradual reopening) of its parks (85% decrease) and movie theaters (65% decrease). Disney lost $3 billion in revenue directly due to the […]

When we last checked in with Comcast in April, the company was warning investors that its Q2 revenue hit would probably be even worse than in the first quarter. While that prediction has borne out, Comcast chief Brian Roberts is optimistic about the cable giant’s ability to roll with the punches as theme parks in […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Jon Mansell, vice president of programmatic solutions and partnerships at WarnerMedia. Connected TV (CTV) is at an inflection point, split between two competing measurement methodologies. Depending on the buyer’s vantage point, CTV is either a […]

Ad management firm Freestar said Tuesday it has acquired Chocolate’s app mediation platform so it can serve more mobile app publishers. Terms were not disclosed. Freestar is largely a services company that performs tasks such as setting up header bidding and optimizing yield for about 400 desktop and mobile web publishers. But the fast-growing company […]

In states where cannabis is legal, local governments designated dispensaries as an essential service when COVID-19 hit. In lockstep with the lockdowns, cannabis ad compliance startup Fyllo saw an almost immediate increase in ad demand as dispensaries clamored to make sure people knew that they were open for business. But cannabis advertising is a challenging […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Pod Race Podcasting is a relatively small market, closing in on a $1 billion run rate. But the category is on fire right now. The New York Times scooped up Serial Productions for a reported $50 million this week in a “creative and […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Ben Antier, co-founder and chief product officer at Publica. 2020 is shaking our society to its core. While health and social justice remain priorities for all of us, we are also facing significant challenges […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Viva La Pérsonalization The French government will loosen archaic laws this month that have undercut French broadcasters for years. The biggest change will be to repeal a 1993 law that says all French households must receive the same broadcast stream. So French TV stations […]

Meredith Kopit Levien will assume the role of CEO and president of The New York Times Sept. 8, the company said Wednesday. She will succeed Mark Thompson, who has served as CEO since 2012. Read the release. “I see a big opportunity to expand journalism’s role in the lives of millions more people around the […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Falling Out Of Favor Cord cutting was already rising before the pandemic, and a lack of new programming and live sports this fall will only accelerate that trend. This week, Netflix said it doesn’t believe production will resume in the United States before 2021, […]

Media buyers often have a tough time finding diverse or minority-owned media companies on major supply-side platforms (SSPs), because those publishers often lack the resources or scale to set up programmatic sales. So diverse or minority-owned publishers get left out of the programmatic opportunity. Programmatic services firm Huddled Masses set out to fix that problem […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Big-Inbox Retail Verizon Media added a new feature for Yahoo Mail accounts, in partnership with Walmart: inbox shopping. Walmart will have a dedicated banner atop Yahoo inboxes, where users can search for groceries, add them to a cart and purchase without leaving their inbox. […]

When Google’s DSP DV360 stopped buying on the tech site XDA Developers, revenue dropped 30% overnight. The site soon realized it was on a “shadow blocklist,” where buyers don’t reveal why they stop bidding on a site, to prevent nefarious publishers from skirting the rules. It took almost six months of guesswork and methodical changes […]

Netflix will spend less on marketing this year in part due to COVID-19 – but the streaming platform was planning on moving in that direction anyway. “In terms of the march toward less traditional media, we’ve been on that for some time,” said Netflix chief content officer and newly appointed co-CEO Ted Sarandos on the company’s […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Called To Account Snapchat users may finally start to see brands posting organic content. There are 30 brands testing account pages, including Ben & Jerry’s, Target, Tim Hortons and Gucci. The new brand landing pages feature videos, custom AR lenses and a native storefront […]