- Criteo Says Its Bullish On The Future, But The Market’s All BearsCriteo stock dropped sharply on Wednesday morning after the company reported a decline in revenue in Q4 2025 compared to the year before. The company also reported a drop in the company’s take rate and ... read more
- Gaming Offers Commerce, Not Clutter, to Brands: Acxiom’s Elizabeth DonovanLAS VEGAS – Acxiom is framing gaming as a serious commerce channel rather than a novelty ad placement. Elizabeth Donovan, global head of commerce and retail media networks, said success depends on relevance, restraint and ... read more
- LiveRamp’s Scott Howe: AI Needs ‘Permission At The Center’ Or It ‘Can’t Possibly Be Reputable’PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. — Ad success in using artificial intelligence depends on strong first-party data signals combined with consumer permission to operate reputably as the world shifts from recognition-based to permission-based systems. “How do you ... read more
- Wizard Commerce Launches An AI Shopping Agent To Make Magic of Ecommerce MadnessThe first age of online personal shopping tools came via browser toolbars and other download services such as Honey that tracked deliveries and scoured for coupons. The new thing in personal shopping tools is, of ... read more
- Simo: How OpenAI Ads, Adult Mode Will WorkThe feature launched on Monday in test mode on free and Go tiers, but there has been no public discussion on how brands will purchase media, and whether the platform will be self-serve or require ... read more
- Kepler Taps Fila, OMD Vets For New Senior RolesMaxey previously served in senior marketing roles at Fila, where she was a Kepler client, as well as at Adidas and Gap; Berkowitz served at Spark Foundry and GroupM, prior to OMD. ... read more
- Guideline Unveils New AI 'Factory,' Will Accelerate Development"We're focused on improving workflows that slow down our customers," explains CEO Vincent Mifsud. Projects include new digital media classification system, and a digital multi-metric. ... read more
- Albertsons’ Brian Monahan on What Happens When Retail Media Enters the ChatRetail media is evolving from clicks and carts to conversations and context. As generative and conversational AI reshape how people discover products across the answer ecosystem, retail media leaders are facing new challenges — and ... read more
- Cathay Pacific Taps WPP's Spafax For Retail MediaThe remit includes inflight entertainment, onboard publications, digital channels and experiential formats. ... read more
- Journalists Bring Concern About News Deserts To CongressJournalists warned lawmakers this week about the rapid disappearance of community-based journalism, speaking during an advocacy day sponsored by the Hispanic Technology & Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP). JudeAnne Heath, the executive director of HTTP, said, “This advocacy ... read more
- Amazon Tells Publishers It Is Starting A Content Licensing MarketplaceAmazon has been alerting publishing executives that it plans to launch a marketplace where they can license their content directly to AI companies, TechCrunch reports. Amazon reportedly circulated slides on the proposed marketplace, but did ... read more
- Peak TV: After Declines, Rising AgainThe rebound on orders is coming across subscription video-on-demand, linear pay TV networks and over-the-air broadcasters - in particular over-the-air TV networks, Ampere Analysis says, which have risen 22% vs. the previous year. ... read more
- Super Bowl Sentiment: AI-Tainted Advertising?One survey says 50% of social-media comments about Super Bowl AI-driven advertising were sharply negative. Audiences believed "automation" hurts the overall production standards. ... read more
- Toronto-based Salt XC Acquires Media Shop Craft & CommerceC&C will become part of Salt Media and expand the agency's U.S. footprint to New York, Chicago and Orlando, FL. ... read more
- Fox To Debut Daily News Brief Anchored By Bill MeLuginFox News Media plans to add a daily 90-second news brief on Monday, Feb. 23, anchored by Bill Melugin. Airing at 5:58 p.m., The Fox News Report will deliver headlines on breaking news, politics, sports ... read more
- How GEO Startup Evertune Found Its Way Back To Programmatic TargetingEvertune's new feature allows advertisers to run programmatic ad campaigns directly on the sites and pages most often cited by AI chatbots. The post How GEO Startup Evertune Found Its Way Back To Programmatic Targeting ... read more
- In Platforms We Trust?The future of measurement is set it and forget it, says Ty Ahmad-Taylor, Kantar’s chief product officer, on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks. In his view, we’re heading toward a world – although we ... read more
- Amazon Has A Pitch To Pay Pubs; How Lax US Laws Enable Targeted Gambling AdsNo Such Thing As A Free Scrape? The days of free content scraping may be coming to an end. Monetization (or, rather, the lack thereof) has been a hot topic, as LLMs unabashedly scrape publisher ... read more
- WTF are tokens?For a certain generation, a token had weight. It was a small metal coin dropped into a subway turnstile or an arcade machine — the literal price of access. Now, the word is back. Only ... read more
- Digiday+ Research: Dow Jones, Business Insider and other publishers on AI-driven search01 Introduction Publishers are utilizing AI more than ever, as we explored in part 1 of this report, but it’s also the source of major challenges for the media industry. AI-driven ... read more
- AI is changing how retailers select tech partnersThis story was originally published on sister site, Modern Retail. Join Modern Retail, Glossy and Digiday at our inaugural AI Marketing Strategies event on Feb. 11 in New York City, where top marketing leaders will discuss how ... read more
- Future of TV Briefing: CTV identity matches are usually wrongThis week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at a Truthset study showing the error rate for matches between IP and deterministic IDs like email addresses can exceed 84%. Identity crisis NFL’s next rights talks, ... read more
- In Graphic Detail: AI licensing deals, protection measures aren’t slowing web scrapingNew data is reinforcing a structural shift in how AI systems access publisher content: AI models are increasingly scraping publisher content, regardless of bot-blocking measures or content licensing deals meant to control usage, improve attribution ... read more
- Canadian indie Salt XC expands its U.S. presence with purchase of Craft & CommerceThere may be trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada thanks to on-again off-again tariff threats, but that’s not stopping a Canadian-based independent shop from gaining a stronger foothold in the U.S. market as it ... read more
- NBCU Delivers Second-Biggest Game: 124.9M ViewersNBCU's NBC TV Network, Peacock - and Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital and NFL+ - earned a record in a peak viewing moment during the second quarter when it pulled in 137.8 million viewers. ... read more
- Twitch Introduces Pause-Screen AdsFollowing the release of a live-shopping feature, Twitch announced a new ad format designed to display ads when viewers pause a video stream. "Pause-screen ads" are a new ad format Twitch believes will "make ads ... read more
- Tech Group Seeks To Block Utah Restrictions On App DownloadsThe Utah App Store Accountability Act amounts to "a sweeping censorship regime," the Computer & Communications Industry Association argues in a request to enjoin enforcement. ... read more
- School District Can Proceed To Trial Against Social PlatformsA Kentucky school district can attempt to convince a jury that YouTube, TikTok, Meta and Snapchat harmed students' mental health, a federal judge ruled Monday. ... read more
- Snap Brings AI Lenses To Luxury Fashion CampaignsSnapchat partnered with Gucci to launch the first Sponsored AI Lens for a luxury brand's ad campaign, inviting users to interact with the history and styles of the ... read more
- Intuit SMB MediaLabs’ Meg Beaudet: Deterministic Data Turns CTV Into ‘True Performance Channel’LAS VEGAS — Connected TV’s real value as a performance channel happens when advertisers can know exactly who sits in front of the screen, enabling precise targeting that reaches people in their most relaxed, engaged ... read more
- TV Isn't Dead, It Just Learned Programmatic And Hired AIEveryone agrees AI is transforming TV advertising, but fewer than one-third of advertisers actually trust it to do advertising tasks for them. ... read more
- 'I'd Rather Not Know': The Cost Of Being IncuriousAn incurious brain is one that is stagnant and inflexible. The more curious we are, the better tied we are to reality. ... read more
- Anthropic, xAI Execs Disconnect From AI Ethical Concerns To Face RealityThis week, two high-profile execs left companies that had attempted to make an impact in AI, seeking something in the real world. ... read more
- Leaders Disconnect From AI, Ethical Concerns To Face RealityThis week, two high-profile execs left companies that had attempted to make an impact in AI, seeking something in the real world. ... read more
- Index Exchange’s Andrew Casale: Containerization Brings Buyside Decisions ‘Closer to the Sell Side’PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. — Buy-side decisions are moving closer to publishers. The shift, enabled by the IAB’s artificial intelligence maintenance “containerization project,” brings greater focus to where ad impressions actually originate rather than sending requests ... read more
- Ubiquitous Video Expands High-Impact Ad Inventory: VideoElephant’s Brian CullinaneLAS VEGAS – VideoElephant positions itself as a connective layer across the video ecosystem, linking media owners, publishers and advertisers through a vast content library and distribution network. Brian Cullinane, chief commercial officer of VideoElephant, ... read more
- Contextual Targeting Is Turning CTV Into a Performance Channel: Wurl CEO Dave BernathConnected TV advertising is rapidly evolving from a branding medium into a measurable performance channel, driven by advances in contextual targeting, data normalization and artificial intelligence, according to Dave Bernath, chief executive of streaming data ... read more
- The IAB Tech Lab Publisher Protocol for 2026: A Q&A With Anthony KatsurIn the weeks leading up to the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting, there was an uproar on LinkedIn about the agenda. Publishers (and sell side tech vendors, too) were openly frustrated. There was too much future-casting, ... read more
- Dentsu Named Media, Creative AOR For i-HealthThe remit spans integrated strategy, media buying and execution, creative development, measurement and more. ... read more
- Authenticity Attracts 80M People Weekly To Reddit SearchSearch combined with the company's AI-powered search feature Reddit Answers now drives more search volume and queries per user, with more than 80 million people searching directly on the platform each week in the final ... read more
- Havas Takes Controlling Stake In Ctrl, Bolsters Nordics Media NetworkFounded in 2018, Stockholm-based Ctrl Digital joins Havas Media Network. Terms were not disclosed. ... read more
- Havas Takes Controlling Stake In Ctrl Digital, Bolsters Nordics Media NetworkFounded in 2018, Stockholm-based Ctrl Digital joins Havas Media Network. Terms were not disclosed. ... read more
- Carat Extends Arla Foods Remit For Two YearsThe renewed agreement covers markets including UK, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. ... read more
- OOH Is Getting New Rules For Categorizing Venues In Programmatic BuysTraditionally, digital out-of-home (OOH) inventory is grouped by venue type. But programmatic buyers want to know exactly what they’re bidding on – which is why generic categories like “retail” or “transit” just don’t cut it anymore. ... read more
- Performance TV Is Leading Channel For Ad SpendingPerformance TV is now the top channel for advertising investment, according to tvScientific’s 2026 State of Performance TV Report. Advertising on streaming channels now accounts for 24% of total media spend as budgets shift from YouTube, Meta, ... read more
- Say Hello To SAGE, The Latest Agentic AI PlatformAgentic AI is gaining popularity as a tactic for media buyers and sellers striving to simplify workflows, including in streaming TV advertising. On Tuesday, the ad measurement firm iSpot introduced SAGE, an agentic AI platform ... read more
- Why Marketing Lost Its Long View – And How To Get It BackMarketing has an uncomfortable habit we rarely acknowledge: We’re addicted to short-termism. For more than a decade, dashboards and last-click attribution have quietly dictated strategy. These tools were never built to explain how marketing drives ... read more
- NFL, Other Sports Leagues: Selling Games Piecemeal?This past season for the first time, the NFL sold one regular-season game to YouTube for anyone to see for $100 million, according to reports. ... read more
- Affleck Super Bowl Spot With Sitcom Greats Was A Slam Dunkin'The spectacle of former sitcom greats co-starring with Ben Affleck in a "Good Will Hunting" spoof was the TV Blog's favorite Super Bowl commercial. ... read more
- iSpot Goes 'Agentic,' AI Platform Analyzes TV Ads"Now we are putting our massive proprietary intelligence to work in AI models," boasts founder and CEO Sean Muller. ... read more
- Journalists Covering Ukraine War Were Not Biased, But Failed To Keep PaceWestern media outlets were accused of cheerleading or propaganda in covering the Ukraine war. But the problem was not that journalists were biased. “It was that journalism could not keep pace with the war’s informational ... read more
- Microsoft Reports 15M Paid Copilot UsersMicrosoft has for the first time revealed how many clients are paying for Copilot, its artificial intelligence chatbot and assistant. Microsoft 365 Copilot has 15 million paid Copilot seats, showing growth of160% year over year, ... read more
- AI Made A Record Play During Super Bowl LIXPutting aside Bad Bunny’s halftime show, AI companies stole the spotlight on Super Bowl Sunday. Anthropic, OpenAI, Salesforce, Meta, Amazon-owned Ring and a smaller company called Genspark.ai all used Super Bowl spots to promote their ... read more
- Let the OpenAI Ads Tests Begin; Why Everything Is Annoying NowChatGPT users will start seeing ads this week; is our entire economy structured around bothering consumers?; and the FTC's investigation into media credibility groups continues. The post Let the OpenAI Ads Tests Begin; Why Everything ... read more
- Ad Tech Briefing: Publishers are turning to AI-powered mathmen, but can it trump political machinations?Can the carrot of better empirical measurement, as opposed to the beat of a political drum, woo advertisers back to news content? For much of the past decade, brands’ retreat from advertising next to news ... read more
- YouTube’s upmarket TV push still runs on mid-funnel DNAAs YouTube moves further upstream for TV ad dollars, it’s careful not to weaken the lower, mid-funnel mechanics that make those budgets defensible. Google’s sales reps are now being incentivized to prioritize pitching YouTube, ... read more
- Digiday ranks the best and worst Super Bowl 2026 adsSubscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify Now that the dust has settled around the 60-plus Super Bowl ad spots rolled out this year, it’s time to reflect on the best and worst commercials from Super ... read more
- ‘The billable hour does not allow for any meaningful innovation’: S4 Capital builds subscription model for the AI ageSubscriptions were supposed to save publishers. Now, they’re becoming part of the survival logic for agencies too. At agency holdco S4 Capital, the pivot is already taking shape. By the end of the year, about ... read more
- In the age of AI content, The Super Bowl felt old-fashionedAI is turning culture into a production shortcut — faster, cheaper and, at times, familiar. But the Super Bowl is one of the last places where brands are reminded that cultural likeness is easy but ... read more
- Publicis forms new Influential Sports squad to hone its skills in the white-hot sports media arenaThe Super Bowl may be over, and the Winter Olympics already underway, but sports continues to be the red-hot domain in media. Alright, the other hot domain — right after AI. The agency holding companies ... read more
- Dove Takes A Rare Risk With Reddit's Brutal HonestyThe r/eal reviews campaign hints at how the Unilever brand is rethinking trust in beauty marketing. ... read more
- Instagram Reportedly Designing Snapchat Copycat AppA Meta spokesperson has informed "Business Insider" that the company is currently building "an internal prototype of a new stand-alone app for sending disappearing photos," per the article. ... read more
- Discord To Roll Out Mandatory Age-Verification For All UsersNew and existing Discord users will be automatically delivered a "teen-appropriate experience by default" starting in March. In order to be confirmed as an adult, users must complete an age-verification process. ... read more
- Cadillac Faces Suit Over Super Bowl SpotWhile other brands that advertised on the Big Game are enjoying a post-Super Bowl glow, Cadillac's Formula 1 team is contending with a lawsuit. ... read more
- OpenAI Begins Testing ChatGPT Ads With Omnicom, WPP, OthersOpenAI began to roll out ads in ChatGPT to a portion of free and Go users in the United States with test partners in the United States. The ads also have drawn interest from another ... read more
- OpenAI ChatGPT Starts Testing Ads With Adobe, WPPOpenAI began to roll out ads in ChatGPT to a portion of free and Go users in the United States with test partners in the United States. ... read more
- Will Lewis Gone: CEO Of 'The Washington Post' Steps DownReports say that Lewis was showing up at Super Bowl festivities after hundreds were laid off at the "Post." ... read more
- Google Presses Judge To Lift Data Sharing Mandate"The public interest favors a stay because non-parties have an interest in what happens to their search queries," Google argues. ... read more
- Instacart’s Ali Miller Targeting Retail Media ‘Fragmentation’ With Off-Platform PushLAS VEGAS — The race to monetize shopper data has turned retail media into the advertising industry’s fastest-growing sector, projected to surpass combined spending on connected TV and traditional television by 2027. But perhaps it ... read more
- Advanced Audience Planning Drives TV’s Next Phase: iSpot’s Dan HickoxLAS VEGAS – Media budgets are steadily moving from linear television to connected TV, opening new ways for marketers to reach audiences with greater precision, according to Dan Hickox, vice president of business development and ... read more
- Lawmaker Questions DOJ Over ICEBlock Censorship"The First Amendment guarantees the people the right to record, report, discuss, and criticize the actions of our government -- including the deployment of federal agents in their communities," Rep. Jamie Raskin tells Attorney General ... read more
- Alphabet Reportedly Looking At Bond Sale To Fund AI InvestmentsAlphabet, Google's parent, is looking for ways to raise about $15 billion from a U.S. high-grade dollar bond sale that will fund artificial intelligence investments. ... read more
- Star power, AI jabs and Free Bird: Digiday’s guide to what was in and out at the Super BowlNow that the washing up’s done and the snacking detritus has been swept off the floor, it’s time to consider the real winners and losers of this year’s Super Bowl – the brands. (The Seattle ... read more
- Station Stocks Rise: $6.2B Nexstar-Tegna Deal Going Ahead?President Trump appeared to reverse his opinion about the deal, saying "there will be more competition" for TV news. ... read more
- Substack Allows Racist Newsletters To Publish, Report ChargesSubstack profits from allowing antisemitic newsletters to publish on its platform, The Guardian charges. One such product is NatSocToday, which published a recent post stating that the Jewish race was responsible for World War II, and that Adolf Hitler ... read more
- Longmont News Network Pursues AI-Based NewsThe Longmont News Network, a platform based in Longmont, Colorado, increased its frequency, but the AI-generated content has included “fabricated information, misspelled names, and AI-generated images that some residents mistook for real photographs,” writes the ... read more
- Personalization Inside Physical Stores Underpins Retail Media Strategy: CVS’s Paul LentzLAS VEGAS – Paul Lentz, head of strategic development at CVS Media Exchange, says personalization inside physical stores is becoming a central pillar of CVS’s retail media strategy. Speaking with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at ... read more
- 'Miniature Wife,' Strangest Show At May Upfronts, Coming In AprilIt was the kookiest TV show concept of last spring's Upfronts and now, "The Miniature Wife" has a premiere date. ... read more
- Old Rules, New Tools Create Friction In Advertising's AI EraMedia experts with old values, judgment and tools and U.S. legislation and rules are trying to manage technology never envisioned - a theme circulating through the advertising industry as AI technology kicks in to take ... read more
- IAB’s New AI Regulations Give Advertisers A Starting Point – But Plenty Of Questions RemainThe IAB's new framework aims to standardize when AI in ads should be disclosed, but a lot is still left up to interpretation. The post IAB’s New AI Regulations Give Advertisers A Starting Point – ... read more
- AI For Legacy Media: The Good, The Bad, And The EmotionalAI could be used to identify viewers who are bored or disinterested in content. It could also offer a personalized "shoppable" TV moment for products and services. ... read more
- Cleaning Up CTV Supply: A Publisher’s Guide To Reducing Ad FraudDespite the massive shift of eyeballs from linear to streaming content, concerns over ad fraud have some major advertisers reluctant to commit large portions of their budgets to CTV. Meanwhile, with the rapid growth of ... read more
- It’s A SaaS Selloff; ‘Integrity,’ As In, Integrated.Wall Street is falling out of love with SaaS; OpenAI has an “ads integrity” unit; and the Super Bowl is getting more personalized. The post It’s A SaaS Selloff; ‘Integrity,’ As In, Integrated. appeared first ... read more
- In Graphic Detail: The scale of the challenge facing publishers, politicians eager to damage Google’s adland dominance Last week, Google’s parent company Alphabet reported that 2025 revenue was an eye-popping $403 billion, making the last 123 months its highest-earning year – almost $114 billion in Q4 alone – with these sums representing ... read more
- In Q1, marketers pivot to spending backed by AI and measurementBetween mass layoffs and shaken consumer confidence, brand advertisers are cautiously wading through the first weeks of 2026. With consumer demand harder to predict, advertisers are looking for clearer signals before committing to ad spend. “Marketers ... read more
- The case for and against bringing programmatic in-houseMore brands are set to bring the media expertise in-house this year, with some, including Danish advertiser Lego, even moving to build out internal programmatic expertise. In theory, they’re doing so to reduce the cost ... read more
- Why Walmart is basically a tech company nowThis story was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail. After building up fast-growing e-commerce and advertising businesses, moving its stock to the Nasdaq, and, as of Tuesday, crossing $1 trillion in valuation, Walmart is starting ... read more
- The Athletic invests in live blogs, video to insulate sports coverage from AI scrapingAs the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics collide this week, The New York Times-owned publication The Athletic is playing up coverage that is harder for AI bots to lift: live blogs and video. At ... read more
- Media Buying Briefing: Why is Wall Street punishing Publicis – and maybe other holdcos?Speak to any holding company leader and they’ll be the first to tell you they’re misunderstood. They feel maligned by all the independent agencies looking to poach their smaller clients who may feel overlooked or ... read more
- Publicis Unveils New Sports-Focused Influencer solutionThe offering, dubbed Influential Sports, is a joint effort from Publicis Sports and Influential, the influencer marketing firm that Publicis acquired in 2024 for a reported $500 million. ... read more
- Publisher Will Lewis Departs 'The Washington Post'Will Lewis has stepped down as chief executive and publisher of The Washington Post only days after the Post laid off 30% of its, staff, including 300 journalists, The New York Times reports. Owner Jeff Bezos announced ... read more
- Focus Shifts From Super Bowl To OlympicsRalph Lauren, Starbucks and Honda are among the brands activating around the Games in various ways. ... read more
- Wall-to-Wall Bloomberg: Publisher Launches An Integrated Video HubThe announcement follows gains in viewership in 2025. ... read more
- Gracenote’s Bill Michels: Scene-Level Targeting Only Works If You Can Do It At ScaleLAS VEGAS — Targeting ads to specific scenes within TV content sounds like the ultimate precision play. The challenge is that precision without scale doesn’t spend budgets, and most scene types don’t appear frequently enough ... read more
- The Super Bowl And The Economics Of CreativityIt may seem paradoxical that something we proactively avoid most of the time is something we actively love once a year, but the real paradox is why marketers don't encourage that kind of cultural embrace ... read more
- NewsGuard Sues FTC, Claims Omnicom/IPG Condition UnconstitutionalThe FTC "is brazenly using its power not for any issue concerning trade or commerce, but rather to censor speech," NewsGuard alleges in a complaint filed Friday in federal court. NewsGuard launched in 2020 to ... read more
- NewsGuard Sues FTC, Claims Omnicom/IPG Merger Condition UnconstitutionalThe FTC "is brazenly using its power not for any issue concerning trade or commerce, but rather to censor speech," NewsGuard alleges in a complaint filed Friday in federal court. NewsGuard launched in 2020 to ... read more
- Amazon Stuns Observers With Commitment To Spend $200B On AI InvestmentsBut company's Super Bowl ad showed another side of AI, with actor Chris Hemsworth imagining Alexa was trying to murder him. ... read more
- TikTok Shop Launches Product Amplification ProgramTikTok is attempting to bring in more retailers with a new Shop program designed to help brands sell more products on the app, amidst widespread confusion over the implications of its new U.S. ownership, ... read more
- Advocacy Group Blasts Google Bid To Lift Data-Sharing OrderConsumer advocacy group Public Knowledge is urging a judge to reject Google's request to lift orders requiring it to share some data about users' searches with "qualified" competitors and to provide syndicated search results and ... read more
