Publishers

Comcast’s strategy has long been to invest in every area where customers get their entertainment or information, so that even if one line of business is affected by changing consumer preferences, another could benefit. Cord cutters, for instance, reduced Comcast’s video business but aided its broadband business. The following are items of interest gleaned from […]

This is a new podcast from AdExchanger. It will be available wherever you subscribe to podcasts.  In the wake of Facebook’s suspension of social listening tool Crimson Hexagon from its platform late last week, it’s easy to trace the reason for the crackdown to residual squeamishness from its Cambridge Analytica nightmare. In the latest episode […]

It’s safe to say the ad industry has a thing for trade orgs. On Wednesday, a new one – the Brand Safety Institute (BSI) – opened its doors with the mission of helping advertisers, agencies and publishers get smart about managing brand safety issues. The group was co-founded by Neal Thurman, who was also recently appointed director […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. WPP In A China Shop WPP is exploring selling 20% of WPP China, its agency subsidiary in the market, to the Chinese media triumvirate of Tencent, Alibaba and China Media Capital Holdings, reports Sky News. The discussions are in the early stages, but WPP […]

Disney is about to get its own happily ever after with Hulu. Comcast has dropped out of its bidding war for most of Fox’s assets, conceding it to Disney. Disney and Fox shareholders are expected to approve the deal on July 27, USA Today reported. Disney will also gain access to Fox’s Star India network […]

OTT audiences are increasing in volume and engagement, but the channel must still overcome issues related to content discovery, measurement and fill rates. At A&E Networks, OTT’s share of audience is up 150% compared with decreases in engagement across desktop and mobile. At Bloomberg, 30% of its OTT audiences watch for 30 minutes or more […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Claws Down The bidding war between Comcast and Disney for 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets has finally come to an end, with Comcast backing down after Disney’s $71.3 billion counterbid. Comcast will focus instead on beating Fox to acquire Sky, the British satellite TV […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. SaaSy Publisher Vox Media will license its digital publishing software Chorus to other publishers, The Wall Street Journal reports. Twenty media companies are in talks to license Chorus already, which allows publishers to create, monetize and distribute articles for a recurring fee. In the […]

Trusted Media Brands is continuing its turnaround and building a revenue team to take advantage of its digital audience growth. Over the past year, the company, formerly known as the Reader’s Digest Association, grew readership on RD.com 76% to 8.3 million unique visitors. Taste of Home’s audience grew 39% to 12.7 million unique visitors. Overall […]

Machine Zone’s (MZ) experiment with homegrown ad tech is over. The gaming company shuttered Cognant, an internal demand-side platform created in 2016 to help MZ’s media buying team plan, create, buy, optimize and measure marketing campaigns. MZ laid off the entire Cognant team in June, as well as around half of its in-house media buyers, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Zuck Abides Readers might be forgiven for thinking this has been a brutal year for Facebook, given the long string of scandals and investigations the company has faced. But in some important ways, Facebook is humming along as smoothly as ever, according to […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Outlook Hazy The fate of Hulu depends on the outcome of Comcast’s and Disney’s bidding war for 21st Century Fox. Whoever wins will own a majority stake in Hulu, and both companies have very different visions for the platform’s future. Comcast wants to invest […]

Header bidding-like tech is starting to pick up steam on mobile, but it’s still mostly SDK-based, which brings added latency along with the revenue bump. On Thursday, mobile monetization platform PubNative released a hybrid server-side/client-side header bidding tool to help publishers bring in more dough without messing up the UX. Dubbed HyBid, the solution allows […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Greg Smith, an independent advertising technology consultant. Spring has sprung, and now we enter the dog days of summer. One new advertising “flower” that is poised to grow, even among the walled gardens, is […]

Roku released its Audience Marketplace on Tuesday, designed to let publishers use its first-party data based on how consumers interact with the OTT device. The new marketplace allows publishers to match their audiences with Roku’s. The device’s first-party data also provides behavioral insights – such as what content Roku users search for or how much […]

Toddler-age publication Fatherly was designed for the future of digital media. Fatherly CEO Michael Rothman, a veteran of Thrillist, envisioned a branded content-focused publication, with maybe a sideline of commerce via product licensing (not the JackThreads variety). Programmatic was out as an option. “We are at a place where audience doesn’t grow at a pace […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. An Otter Acquisition Most people are still busy digesting news of AT&T’s $1.6 billion acquisition of AppNexus – but the telco already has another little deal up its sleeve. AT&T is in the process of securing full ownership of Otter Media, the streaming media company […]

Travel publishers often miss the boat on attribution. Although their content is an integral part of the trip-planning process at the top of the funnel, there’s no easy way to credit its role in an eventual hotel booking. Fathom, a site that publishes curated destination guides and first-person travel accounts, knew it was leaving money […]

While many advertisers are shying away from news content due to brand safety concerns, News UK is making the case that buying ads alongside emotionally charged content drives stronger results. The publisher of The Sun and The Times loaded its version of News Corp.’s News IQ platform with data about readers’ opinions, emotions and preferences. […]

Instagram dropped its answer to YouTube on Wednesday, and the timing couldn’t be riper. Ad spending across the top 70 YouTube channels is essentially flat, with only a 0.2% increase this year, according to ad sales intelligence business MediaRadar. Why? Marketers are increasingly worried about their brand reps on YouTube, said MediaRadar CEO and co-founder […]

CafeMedia is selling its entire publishing portfolio to RockYou, choosing to place its bets on AdThrive, the ad management firm it acquired two years ago. The AdThrive business is profitable but the sites being sold by CafeMedia – CafeMom, MamasLatinas, Revelist and Baby Name Wizard – were “break-even,” according to CafeMedia CEO Michael Sanchez. “It’s […]

In Bruce Falck’s office, there’s a piece of paper tacked to the wall with a list of important reminders: GDPR, MRC, transparency, measurement. But rather than focusing on “external factors,” the GM of Twitter’s revenue product and his growing team are “getting back to basics.” Twitter has spent the last two years striking content partnerships, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. DSPayday? AT&T is in talks to acquire AppNexus and the two companies are close to finalizing the deal, reports Cheddar. AppNexus brass are reportedly unwilling to sell for less than $2 billion. That sounds like an awful lot, but there are factors working in […]

Ad servers’ primary goal is to deliver direct-sold campaigns in full, so a publisher earns all revenue promised by the advertiser. But ad servers are dumb. They can deliver direct-sold campaigns too quickly, leaving an advertiser without active ads toward the end of the month. Or to ensure that direct campaigns deliver in full, they […]

The bid has dropped. Comcast on Wednesday again attempted to outmaneuver Mickey and acquire most of 21st Century Fox’s assets with a $65 billion cash offer, putting Disney’s deal in jeopardy. Disney offered Fox a $52.4 billion all-stock deal in December. Comcast wants to disrupt the deal and follow in AT&T’s footsteps: a content distributor […]

Reddit is hoping advertisers upvote its latest ad offering: outstream video. The ad unit is being made available to managed partners on Tuesday, and all advertisers will get a crack through self-serve within the next few months – but programmatic is still a long way off. Although programmatic is on Reddit’s road map, “we’re still in […]

USA Today Sports Media Group acquired Golfweek 20 months ago because of its great content and readership of obsessive golf fans. After working with Golfweek on advertising and content partnerships, the Gannett-owned group saw how much more it could do with Golfweek if it owned the property. “We thought we could run it much more […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The House Always Wins As YouTube keeps dialing up brand safety protections, creators in marginal or disreputable categories are feeling the brunt. A relatively small but active group of creators who stream from inside casinos (because people like to watch others gambling) have found […]

Ads.txt is headed to the app ecosystem. What form will it take? That’s still shaking out. The IAB Tech Lab released guidance on Wednesday with several proposals for how to implement Ads.txt within an app environment. Ads.txt is the Tech Lab’s initiative to reduce inventory spoofing and help advertisers distinguish legit supply sources from the […]

Facebook is hopping into in-app header bidding. Starting Wednesday, publishers can include Audience Network inventory in their in-app unified auctions. All formats will be available, including display, native and video. Facebook joins a long list of other platforms that have gotten jiggy with in-app header bidding in recent months, including Google’s AdMob, Oath, MoPub and […]