The Sell Sider Archives | AdExchanger https://www.adexchanger.com/category/the-sell-sider/ News and Views on Data-Driven Digital Advertising and Marketing Tue, 07 Apr 2026 20:25:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 https://www.adexchanger.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/cropped-adx-icon-1-32x32.png The Sell Sider Archives | AdExchanger https://www.adexchanger.com/category/the-sell-sider/ 32 32 AI Has Already Decided: First-Party Data Will Define Advertising’s Agentic Era https://www.adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/ai-has-already-decided-first-party-data-will-define-advertisings-agentic-era/ Mon, 06 Apr 2026 04:35:28 +0000 https://www.adexchanger.com/?p=455672 The industry has spent years debating third-party cookies, but AI has settled the debate. AI decision engines optimized for outcomes (sales, retention, lift) require deterministic identity, clean feedback loops and governable data lineage.  First-party data isn’t just preferred; it’s structurally necessary. And the capital is already moving: IAB’s State of Data report found that 71% […]

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]]> No Traffic, No Moat: How AI Breaks The Economics Of Destination Publishing https://www.adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/no-traffic-no-moat-how-ai-breaks-the-economics-of-destination-publishing/ Wed, 25 Feb 2026 05:35:09 +0000 https://www.adexchanger.com/?p=452166 For as long as most of us in digital media can remember, professional publishing has relied on a fragile assumption: If you build a destination – a site, an app, a channel – audiences will come. And if you have an audience, you can make content publishing economics work through advertising, subscriptions or some mix […]

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]]> Publishers Don’t Need A Reset Button. They Need Stability. https://www.adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/publishers-dont-need-another-reset-they-need-stability/ Tue, 24 Feb 2026 15:28:11 +0000 https://www.adexchanger.com/?p=452664 Publishers are tired of rebuilding their businesses every year. In 2024, it was all about the cookie cutoff. In 2025, it was AI disruption. In 2026, they’re just looking for stability. Back in January, before Q1 earnings calls and the latest layoff headlines, I asked nearly twenty publishers a simple question: What are you actually […]

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]]> Media In 2026: From Managed Decline To Ruthless Independence https://www.adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/media-in-2026-from-managed-decline-to-ruthless-independence/ Mon, 05 Jan 2026 05:35:09 +0000 https://www.adexchanger.com/?p=449724 The era of “managed decline” is over; the era of existential clarity has begun. We are no longer guessing what the post-platform world looks like. We are living in it. Over the last 12 months, the media industry has watched referral traffic flatline and AI crawlers strip-mine our archives without so much as a thank-you […]

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]]> The Open Internet Can Still Win If Buyers and Sellers Unite Around Radical Transparency https://www.adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/the-open-internet-can-still-win-if-buyers-and-sellers-unite-around-radical-transparency/ Thu, 18 Dec 2025 05:35:13 +0000 https://www.adexchanger.com/?p=448850 The open internet is at a turning point.  Our ecosystem needs transparency, accountability and collaboration from the buy side and the sell side if we are to truly thrive.  Industry leaders recognize this reality, including The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green and JWX (formerly JWP Connatix) CEO John Nardone. Both have weighed in on how […]

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]]> Why The Future Of Publisher Monetization Depends On Transparency, Not Volume https://www.adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/why-the-future-of-publisher-monetization-depends-on-transparency-not-volume/ Wed, 29 Oct 2025 04:35:32 +0000 https://www.adexchanger.com/?p=446209 Publisher monetization choices are among the most covered and critiqued aspects of our industry. I’m as guilty as anyone; it has been the through line of everything I’ve written about since 2023. If you’d prefer to skip the archives, here’s the summary: The core challenge with publisher monetization is the perception that more partners, requests […]

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]]> A Market Built On Mistrust: Why Disputes Like The Transaction ID Debacle Keep Rocking Ad Tech https://www.adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/a-market-built-on-mistrust-why-disputes-like-the-transaction-id-debacle-keep-rocking-ad-tech/ Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:35:32 +0000 https://www.adexchanger.com/?p=445874 Prebid doing away with universal Transaction IDs is just the latest example of the ad industry’s counterproductive history of information asymmetry and obfuscation. When both sides of a transaction aren’t working with the same information, you can’t have a fair market. Strong business relationships can’t be built on mistrust. But to get to the heart […]

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]]> What The Google Trial Is Missing: Data, Not Auctions, Will Decide The Fate Of The Open Web https://www.adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/what-the-google-trial-is-missing-data-not-auctions-will-decide-the-fate-of-the-open-web/ Mon, 13 Oct 2025 04:35:45 +0000 https://www.adexchanger.com/?p=445197 The Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google marks a watershed in digital advertising. But while proposed remedies like forcing Google to divest its ad exchange (AdX) may target real problems, focusing narrowly on Google’s ad tech pipes risks missing the larger imbalance in the open internet. The auction has never been the real center […]

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]]> Stop Debating And Start Acting: A Unified Front Against AI Is Publishers’ Only Hope https://www.adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/stop-debating-and-start-acting-a-unified-front-against-ai-is-publishers-only-hope/ Thu, 09 Oct 2025 04:35:28 +0000 https://www.adexchanger.com/?p=445009 When the peer-to-peer site Napster unleashed digital audio on the web, the record industry couldn’t move fast enough. It took about a year and a half for the first major lawsuit to shut the service down. The battle was won, but the war for control over music distribution was irrevocably lost. Today, the publishing industry […]

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]]> Transaction IDs Can Reduce Auction Duplication, But A Fair Market Requires Some Duplication https://www.adexchanger.com/the-sell-sider/transaction-ids-can-reduce-auction-duplication-but-a-fair-market-requires-some-duplication/ Thu, 11 Sep 2025 13:38:11 +0000 https://www.adexchanger.com/?p=442926 Transaction IDs (TIDs) have been the topic du jour on LinkedIn and Twitter – and for good reason. These OpenRTB identifiers let buyers deduplicate the cluttered bidstream.  The entire TID debate has a clear subtitle: “Duplication is waste.”  However, legitimate auction duplication provides benefits for publishers. And the use of TIDs drives publishers’ fears around […]

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