Perhaps nothing can stay ad-free forever. Brave launched in 2016 as an open-source, ad-blocking, privacy-forward web browser to compete with Google’s Chrome. But in 2019, soon after Brave exited beta, it began introducing opt-in, rewarded ... read more

Debra Aho Williamson will be a keynote speaker at AdExchanger’s Programmatic AI conference, taking place May 18-20 at the Park MGM in Las Vegas. Register today if you haven’t already signed up! OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s ... read more

Google The Untouchable Penske Media, Chegg and the Helena World Chronicle brought speedy antitrust lawsuits against Google last year following the DOJ’s yearslong monopoly cases against Google Search and Google’s publisher ad tech services. The ... read more

The dawn of the agentic advertising era has led to a land grab, with industry practitioners now facing an increasingly fragmented marketplace of technical standards and interfaces.  And with headcounts across the board facing cutback ... read more

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify What does it take to sell an influencer agency? That’s the question at the helm of this week’s Digiday Podcast. To answer the question, Jennifer Quigley-Jones joined the show ... read more

YouTube is releasing a Gemini-powered Creator Partnerships suite of tools designed to help brands more easily find the right creators to work with and automate parts of the process like matching and campaign management.  The ... read more

This story was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail. The escalating conflict among the U.S., Israel and Iran shows no signs of stopping soon, and that is being felt across the global energy markets. ... read more

Air purifier brand BlueAir and the New York Knicks make an odd couple. The Unilever-owned Swedish manufacturer recently signed up to become the NBA franchise’s first “air care” partner, part of a broader effort to ... read more

The timing couldn’t have been better for a charm offensive. Weeks after TikTok closed a deal to establish a new majority American-owned entity – ending a years-long legal battle over its future in the U.S. ... read more

The connected TV advertising market is booming, with spending projected to surpass traditional TV by 2028. But all those sophisticated targeting capabilities and premium ad formats that make CTV so appealing – could they actually ... read more

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The passion of viewers alone will not close a deal as marketers seek business outcomes from their media partners, according to Richard Bertodatti, svp of multimedia and advanced ad sales ... read more

During their first combined NewFront event as a fully integrated company, Walmart and Vizio execs announced that unified account logins are coming to smart TVs using Vizio’s operating system. And that identity framework creates a ... read more

Dugan will begin by incorporating ads solutions within the ChatGPT consumer experience, according to his post on LinkedIn Monday -- currently in its first phase of testing. Dugan enters his new role as the VP/head ... read more

Last week, a jury in California found that Musk purposefully manipulated Twitter's share price and may be ordered to pay former shareholders upwards of $2.6 billion in damages. ... read more

A federal judge has dismissed an antitrust lawsuit by newspaper publisher Helena World Chronicle LLC and community news publisher Emmerich Newsapers, which claimed Google monopolizes a market for online news. ... read more

Virginia says a district court judge blocked enforcement of the time limits "based on a threadbare record and untested contentions." ... read more

The age-old question for streaming TV advertisers is, how to target the viewers they want while reaching the scale their businesses need. The quick-serve restaurant operator CKE, which owns Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s and the Red ... read more

OpenAI has hired David Dugan, a former ads lead at Meta, as the AI firm's vice president and head of global ads solutions. The move identifies the dominance large language models will have on advertising ... read more

For most of modern history, we operated with a shared baseline of reality. That baseline is eroding in real time. ... read more

The Supreme Court on Monday turned away the search advertiser California Crane School, which had petitioned to revive its claims that Apple and Google conspired to avoid competing in paid search. ... read more

The new media-buying capabilities focus on integrating Google's Gemini AI model more fully into the Google Marketing Platform to help marketers better predict consumers' next steps and use agentic technology more effectively to match brands ... read more

Google got to talk about its two favorite things during its presentation at the IAB’s NewFronts on Monday: AI and creators. It announced multiple new features coming to YouTube and DV360 for CTV and video ... read more

Google got to talk about its two favorite things during its presentation at the IAB’s NewFronts on Monday: AI and creators. It announced multiple new features coming to YouTube and DV360 for CTV and video ... read more

COMvergence reports the Groupe's total new business (including wins, losses and retentions) was nearly $10.5 billion, dwarfing all competition. ... read more

FedEx delivers more than 15 million packages per day in the US. It runs one the largest, most time-sensitive logistics networks on planet Earth. Last year, it had a 95.3% on-time score for package delivery ... read more

When Truthset revealed that IP-to-postal matches are accurate only 13% of the time, it exposed an uncomfortable truth about connected TV advertising: The industry has been optimizing for the wrong metric. Somewhere along the way, ... read more

Brands still close the sale, but AI gets the first date and sometimes picks the outfit. ... read more

"Unscripted" TV shows are a challenge for brands, especially ones following real-life characters where real-life behavior before or during productions cause problems for producers. ... read more

Frankie Taylor Paul went from flying high on Sunday to crashing on Thursday. ... read more

The FBI wants your data; Agency-owned AI platforms may not be long for this world; and how much data is too much, anyway?  The post The New Data Buyer In Town; The Old Agency Buyer ... read more

The word transparency is bandied about across the media and marketing world, with marketers demanding it (or so they say), and agencies and tech firms insisting they deliver it. But it all feels sometimes like ... read more

The creator economy had been waiting for a moment like this. For years, influencer marketing had occupied an awkward position on media plans – big enough to matter, not established enough to defend. The measurement ... read more

The News/Media Alliance is testing a new path to AI revenue, signing a licensing deal that lets its 2,200 publisher members opt in to monetizing RAG-driven enterprise demand. The deal is with AI startup company ... read more

The standoff between Publicis Groupe and The Trade Desk is widely viewed as a transparency dispute, but that’s only the surface; deeper analysis shows it’s indicative of tectonic plates shifting. Related Insights ... read more

What really happens when AI agents are enlisted to negotiate ad deals? To find out, I created an interactive game that has actual Gemini-powered AI agents represent buyers and sellers in an advertising deal. Then ... read more

Creator agency Reign Maker Group and Hollywood talent agency Paradigm announced a series of joint signings, underscoring how representation models are evolving as agencies seek to diversify both their talent rosters and revenue streams. The ... read more

This story was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail. Change is afoot at one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies as it shifts its business model to adapt to the agentic AI era.  During ... read more

The science-fiction adventure film - expected to deliver $50 million to $60 million - became the top-grossing domestic movie of the year so far. ... read more

The science-fiction adventure film - expected to deliver $50 million to $60 million - became the top-grossing domestic movie of the year so far. ... read more

A federal judge has ruled that key parts of the Defense Department’s media policy are unconstitutional, the New York Times reports. The Times, which filed a lawsuit accusing the Pentagon of violating the First and Fifth Amendments, is ... read more

The squabble erupted into public view last week when a Publicis Groupe memo leaked that indicated it was no longer recommending that clients use The Trade Desk for DSP and related services. ... read more

Stagwell has chosen Applovin’s Axon in an effort to provide clients with a transparency measurement and reporting tool for mobile campaigns, Insider Monkey reports. Axom reaches 1 billion users per day via mobile apps and ... read more

WordPress.com will allow AI agents to draft, edit and publish content on clients’ websites, the firm announced on Friday, TechCrunch reports. The web hosting platform will also let users manage comments, update metadata and manage comment. This ... read more

Intuit won a legal victory on Friday when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a Federal Trade Commission barring Intuit, the maker of the Turbo Tax tax preparation software from advertising the ... read more

The entire staff is being laid off, putting more journalists on the street. ... read more

U.S. omnichannel retail media is projected to generate $71.67 billion in 2026, as retailers work to unify in-store and digital operations. But, with more than 240 networks now vying for advertiser dollars, retail media is ... read more

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Pause ads might just be the ultimate form of advertising kindness to both marketers and CTV viewers alike.. “The results we saw is our pause ad experience drove 79% lower ... read more

The White House released policy guidelines on Friday calling for blocking state laws that regulate AI. It also recommended safeguards for children and consumer protections for energy costs. ... read more

Nielsen, which delayed a recalibrated version of its monthly Gauge from this week to next, is now delaying it until September. ... read more

Eighty percent of Google Ventures investments in Europe are in AI or AI-native companies that seem to be doing something new or in a way that could not have been done before. ... read more

Bluesky announced that it raised $100 million in a Series B funding round last April, allowing the company to add developers and build out its protocol functionality. ... read more

Bluesky announced that it raised $100 million in a Series B funding round last April, allowing the company to add developers and build out its protocol functionality. ... read more

"The Communications Act explicitly denies the Commission any 'power of censorship' or power to 'interfere with the right of free speech,'" the ACLU and others say in a letter to FCC Chair Brendan Carr. ... read more

Shopping queries on AI platforms are growing faster than any other category and referral traffic is converting at higher rates,. This shows advertisers must tackle another new channel, according to marketing agency Skai. ... read more

A federal appellate court has granted Meta Platforms' petition to review a ruling requiring the company to face claims by Facebook users who say they were duped by fraudulent ads. ... read more

Google's quest to create a universal assistant could be the reason it reportedly restructured the team behind Project Mariner, a research prototype browser extension from Google DeepMind and AI agent for the Chrome browser that ... read more

New York, NY — Friday, March 20, 2026 — AdExchanger has renewed its partnership with the US chapter of The Women in Programmatic Network (TWIPN) for 2026, expanding collaboration across its flagship industry gatherings and ... read more

Stop treating your agency like a traditional partner. If they are selling you "owned" inventory, the rules of engagement must change. ... read more

In a matter of weeks, the only perceived economic bright spot for American voters - gas prices - has gone from not-so-bad to not-so-good, finds Ipsos' tracking team. ... read more

The trial will focus on allegations that Bollore provided discounted communications services via Havas to two African country presidential contenders (both won) in exchange for contracts to run shipping port concessions. ... read more

Radio is the most trusted medium, with 85% of Americans finding it trustworthy or very much so, Radio Ink reports based on Katz Radio Group’s 2026 Media Trust Study. It is followed by newspapers (77%), ... read more

Traffic is plummeting for seemingly resilient publications, including Digital Trends (97%) and The Verge (-85%). But traffic decline doesn’t necessarily mean business decline, Fast Company writes. The Verge, an early questioner of AI’s impact on content, is pursuing a four-point strategy that includes a ... read more

There are lawsuits from eight state governments with antitrust concerns, as well as legal filings from Newsmax, DirecTV and the Communications Workers of America, among other lawsuits. ... read more

If you buy CTV advertising, you’ve likely encountered two approaches to securing premium inventory: programmatic guaranteed (PG) and buying direct, also referred to as direct IO (DIO). Both are effective in different ways, but each ... read more

People who linger longer with chatbots reported higher loneliness, less interaction with actual humans and more signs of emotional dependence. ... read more

A report from SponsorUnited says that in 2025, women's sports leagues including the WNBA, NWSL, WTA, and LPGA had a combined 5,372 sponsorship deals --- three-and-a-half times the growth rate of men's sports leagues and ... read more

Fox's plan to tee up a three-part, six-hour Bible-based miniseries could be seen as an experiment aimed at determining if there is an audience for religious storytelling in prime time. ... read more

America's Test Kitchen introduced direct and programmatic buying for its free ad-supported TV channels – marking the first time it’s selling ad inventory as a standalone package. The post America’s Test Kitchen Puts Direct And ... read more

Principal-based buying is on the rise, and it’s causing conflict between agencies and ad tech partners. Plus: What are sell-side agents, and how could they help publishers? The post The Media Spend Skim appeared first ... read more

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem …  The post Comic: Overfrequency appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

Publishers’ Porky Pages News publishers overloading their sites with ads, plus the ever-growing technical requirements for running ad auctions, have given rise to a new online phenomenon: the 49MB web page. To put that bloat ... read more

This article was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail. Livestreaming is more than just a social media strategy for the husband-and-wife team behind the eight-figure luxury handbag and accessories brand Parker Thatch. It’s also ... read more

This story was first published by Digiday sibling Glossy On Wednesday, Macy’s, Inc. posted its fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2025. The department store giant and owner of Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury reported a 1.5% growth ... read more

Agencies have spent years betting that proprietary AI platforms would set them apart. A Gartner note published last week put a deadline on how long that bet has to pay off. WPP developed WPP Open ... read more

Costco has introduced what it calls personalized “digital end caps” in an upgrade to Costco Velocity, its retail media network, Supermarket News reports. The platform, which is powered by Moloco’s commerce media technology, uses machine learning trained ... read more

Layoffs in the entertainment industry are continuing this year after an avalanche of job cuts in 2025, Deadline reports. Among the more recent ones are a 3% staff reduction at William Morris Endeavor announced the day after ... read more

A group of investors filed suit against the Trade Desk last year, alleging violations of securities laws related to the company's AI-driven programmatic ad-buying platform Kokai. ... read more

Perplexity launched its browser app Comet for iOS with Google as the default search engine and medical and health search features that will gain support and feedback from a newly formed Perplexity Health Advisory Board. ... read more

TikTok and Tubi have announced a "Creatorverse Incubator" partnership designed to promote original shows made by TikTok creators on the free streaming service. ... read more

The legal clash, dating back almost a year, centered on how home listings can be marketed online. ... read more

Journalists have plenty on their minds - but they like their jobs and are confident in their career prospects, Muck Rack reports. ... read more

Today the ad industry as we know it has entered its "spiders in a jar" phase, when, like spiders, they kill each other until there is only one left. ... read more

"If I tell a friend she can stay at my house and treat it as her own, I would be upset if she went through my underwear drawer, because her actions exceeded the scope of ... read more

The research and trial are a sustainability initiative that can significantly impact how the companies market their environmental efforts and services and which airlines ad industry execs use to travel and support brands. ... read more

Meta plans to deploy more advanced AI systems across its family of apps that will reduce the tech giant's reliance on third-party vendors for content moderation. ... read more

The law "would impoverish public discourse by interfering with the ability of journalists to gather and publish information online," the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press argues in a proposed friend-of-the-court brief filed Wednesday ... read more

The law "would impoverish public discourse by interfering with the ability of journalists to gather and publish information online," the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press argues in a proposed friend-of-the-court brief filed Wednesday ... read more

"While TTD certainly has questions to answer regarding its supply path and fee structure, we suspect this is also a case of the holding company deflecting accountability," Denford wrote in a client note on the ... read more

Robinhood has begun beta-testing a social-media platform designed for users interested in making in-feed trades, following leading investors and staying up to date on the markets. ... read more

As industry conversation focuses on whether AI will actually run media buying, this real example will give advertisers and media buyers a glimpse into how it works. ... read more

Incoming CEO Josh D'Amaro said Disney+ would essentially be a "portal" for Disney's entire ecosystem, aligning the "One Disney" philosophy with the goal to create a direct line between new digital experiences and physical experiences ... read more

"As Nielsen continues to evolve its local TV measurement strategy to prioritize Big Data integrated with a representative panel, we are updating our operational workflows to reflect the primary measurement drivers," Nielsen said, calling over-the-air ... read more

Following up on its 2024 benchmark study on principal media buying, the Association of National Advertisers has released a new one showing the practice has become far more prevalent among big advertisers. ... read more

X suffered an outage on Wednesday, going down just before noon, the New York Post reports. Data from Downtector indicates that complaints spiked in just a few minutes, with tens of thousands of reports coming in. X users ... read more

Marketers are projected to have invested nearly $400 billion in US media in 2025, based on estimates from MAGNA and eMarketer. About half of that will go toward finding new customers. Yet, as marketing investment grows, clarity on ... read more

New CEO Josh D'Amaro may need to revisit the idea of selling/spinning off Disney's cable TV networks - including ESPN. ... read more

Using machine learning to automate and optimize ads is familiar to publishers. For years, this tech has helped publishers tune floors and serve the best ads behind the scenes. Now, publishers are exploring automation and ... read more

For years, “inventory cleanup” (or “rationalization”) meant one thing: curating the domain list. Whitelists, blacklists, inclusion lists, MFA lists, premium lists, “approved publisher” lists. The industry uses them to reduce risk, improve quality and create ... read more

Marketers debate whether to build or buy their tools; Meta is shutting down the VR version of Horizon Worlds; and influencer marketing strives for authenticity. The post To Buy Or Build Your Bot; No Horizon ... read more

Earned media used to mean landing a headline in a major news publication. Now, it’s more likely a mention from a TikTok news explainer or creator-led podcast. As audiences increasingly turn to social media for ... read more