Publishers

Like most publishers, The Associated Press (AP) is evaluating ways it can increase video and article output without straining its staff or resources. A few years ago, the AP began researching ways it could leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve its internal processes. The publisher then formed a cross-functional AI committee to vet […]

Disney’s bet on BAMTech could signal big advancements for its data and platform strategy. The streaming video provider, once majority-owned by MLB Advanced Media, proved such a valuable investment to Disney that it acquired an additional 42% stake in the company for $1.6 billion in August. It previously owned a 33% stake in BAMTech. “Disney […]

There’s no love for annoying ads on Chrome this Valentine’s Day. Google will release a new version of its browser on Thursday with a built-in ad blocker. Here’s how it works. Chrome will now block all ads on sites that don’t adhere to the ad quality standards set by the Coalition for Better Ads, an […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Rachel Parkin, senior vice president of strategy and sales at CafeMedia. In ad tech, we either spend a lot of time hunting for the next big thing or kvetching about what’s broken in our […]

Adobe has placed a new exec in charge of its advertising cloud. TubeMogul’s longtime CMO and head of strategy, Keith Eadie, now oversees product, engineering and overall go-to-market for Adobe’s media and advertising business. His title is VP and GM of Adobe Advertising Cloud. Meanwhile his predecessor, TubeMogul CEO and founder Brett Wilson, is now […]

Penske Media, the publisher of WWD, Variety and IndieWire and majority owner of Wenner Media, is doubling down on video across its portfolio. Its formats range from snackable, short-form clips and pre-roll to text-based video and more cinematic, long-form series. Although Penske’s video mix is diversified, monetizing that inventory to its fullest potential can be […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Ryan Pauley, general manager at Concert and vice president of revenue operations at Vox Media. Certain corners of the advertising world discuss Feb. 15 with the kind of panic you might associate with the […]

Welcome to AdExchanger Talks, a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. Roku is that rare startup that can go up against tech behemoths like Google, Apple and Amazon and win. It has more share in the TV streaming player market than any of those companies individually. Moreover, revenue from advertising and media represents a key part […]

The New York Times is making good on its goal to rev digital subscription revenue, but not at the expense of its other key growth driver: digital advertising. The Times’ total subscription revenue surpassed $1 billion in 2017 as the company added 157,000 net new, digital-only subscriptions in Q4, it announced during its Q4 earnings […]

Pixability, a platform that originated as a tool for identifying high-performing YouTube channels, is putting its money where its mouth is. The company will refund advertisers for views that run on YouTube inventory that is not brand-safe or fails to meet an advertiser’s agreed-upon brand safety terms, either through cash or TV-like “make-goods.” Although Pixability […]

 The magazine industry is consolidating in the face of multiple challenges. Rather than the newsstand, competition is coming from social platforms. Marketers want the performance advertising sold by key digital players. And as print circulation declines, magazines struggle to maintain the steady revenue from their direct-to-consumer subscription businesses. The CEOs and presidents of Condé Nast, […]

The current crop of forced mobile redirect ads tell users they’ve just won a $1,000 Amazon gift card or an Apple iPhoneX. People in ad tech have come to view them in the same way they see blizzards: They’re a hassle and unavoidable in certain climates, including programmatic advertising. “This comes up every year – […]

Welcome to AdExchanger Talks, a podcast focused on data-driven marketing. Subscribe here. The rollup of magazine media continues apace. Meredith’s acquisition of Time Inc, and Hearst’s buyout of Rodale have reduced much of the sector to just a few large companies. But the competitive set has if anything grown to include tech, digital publishers and “commerce + […]

Three magazine media vets on Thursday launched Full Time Travel, a media brand catering to 30-40-year-old upscale consumers. Think of it like TheSkimm, but for travel content. The founders – Nick Van Sicklen, former digital VP at Time Inc., Matt Carroll from Modern Luxury and Gabby Blitz Rosen from Travel + Leisure and Food & […]

Meredith closed its acquisition of Time Inc. Wednesday to create a media company with 174 million digital US unique visitors – not far behind Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon. Meredith will triple its digital revenue by acquiring Time Inc., with projected digital revenue this year of $700 million. Digital will contribute 30% to overall […]

Last year, Group Nine Media, a holding company that owns publications including NowThis and Thrillist, created 23 360-degree videos on Facebook for the VR headset Samsung Gear 360, racking up 161 million views in five months. It was the most popular brand campaign on Facebook in 2017. But will Group Nine be able to replicate […]

Twitter is a company that always seems on the verge of flight. The potential is there, but the question remains: Will the platform ever be able to fulfill it? Instability in Twitter’s C-suite doesn’t help. On Tuesday, COO Anthony Noto – second in command to Jack Dorsey – became the most recent top Twitter exec to fly […]

As the value of publisher data surges, Adam Harris, VP of data products at Hearst Magazines Digital Media, is tasked with maximizing its opportunities. When Harris joined in May, he looked at how Hearst data can be used to create experiences that drive sales, which performance-focused advertisers demand from their digital media. The work builds […]

Conde Nast wants to quickly build up its data science practice, so it acquired Lighthouse Datalab on Monday. In so doing, it added three people to its data science team who will enhance the machine-learning and AI capabilities of Spire, its data platform. Lighthouse Datalab founder Sriram Subramanian will serve as head of data science […]

TBS and TNT’s new CMO, Michael Engleman, is on a mission to make the networks’ brand marketing engine much more agile. Engleman, who helped rebrand the Sci Fi Channel as SyFy during his time at NBCUniversal, thinks broadcasters will be forced to adapt as new content producers and channels compete for consumer attention. For years, […]

Netflix will inevitably need ads, predicted Jo Ann Ross, CBS’ president and chief advertising revenue officer, during a fireside chat at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview on Thursday. “Maybe they’ll offer a lower-cost version of their service [or a different model],” she said, “but if they’re spending that much money [on content], they will look for ways […]

Advertisers for the first time can tap Roku’s first-party data via a managed service measurement system called Ad Insights, released on Wednesday. The Ad Insights platform builds on Roku’s support of third-party measurement partners like existing partner Nielsen, Kantar Millward Brown, Oracle, Placed and Experian. “This launch was really the result of us stepping back […]

In-app header bidding is coming to MoPub. On Tuesday, the Twitter-owned mobile ad exchange started testing an advanced bidding solution to replace the app ads waterfall with a unified auction. Roughly a dozen publishers are testing the solution. The closed alpha test does not have a set end date. Until now, advertisers could buy MoPub […]

Although connected TV buyers have become pretty sophisticated at targeting and delivering an ad to individual users, managing frequency across video providers is a work in progress. But despite the industry’s recognition that consumers demand better ad experiences, many viewers find themselves bombarded with the same ad. Worse, those ads sometimes run within the same […]

The global health and wellness industry is on the fast track to growth, and upstart publisher Well+Good is reaping the benefits. Well+Good began in April 2010 with only 69 subscribers and today, its reach is well over 10 million uniques across digital, social and email, according to Tyler Del Vento, SVP of sales and marketing […]

Mobile ad network and Indian unicorn InMobi paid $90 million for mobile video monetization platform AerServ in a bid to build a header bidding solution for apps. The deal, announced Wednesday, will bring together their respective programmatic exchanges to create “fair auction dynamics for in the in-app space,” said Abhay Singhal, InMobi’s CRO and co-founder. […]

Hulu closed 2017 on a high note. Hulu’s advertising revenue crossed $1 billion for the first time in 2017, the company revealed Tuesday. Underpinning its ad momentum was the growth of Hulu’s subscriber base, which increased 40% year over year from 12 million paid subscribers in 2016 to 17 million in 2017. Those figures include […]

Brad Bender will speak at AdExchanger’s upcoming Industry Preview conference on Jan. 17-18, 2018, at the Grand Hyatt New York. Google’s rallying cry for 2018? Better and possibly fewer ads. While that theory may seem counterintuitive for a company whose revenues come almost exclusively from advertising, rethinking the ad experience may mean recutting standard formats or reducing […]

Condé Nast has long distinguished itself for having the right context to buy ads against. But these days, it’s also focusing on helping advertisers reach new audiences when they buy ads alongside its content with its Spire platform. Condé Nast allows advertisers to use its own data signals to build lookalike audiences and reach more […]

In recent years, enterprise giants like Salesforce, Oracle, IBM and Adobe monopolized M&A activity as each marketing cloud raced to buy their way into ad tech. That tide has turned. These days, strategic acquisitions are more about expanding access to content, audiences and new means of distribution. Just look to media company team-ups like Disney-21st […]