AdExchanger

Welcome to The Big Story, a roundtable featuring members of the AdExchanger editorial team.

Every week, we bring you an in-depth discussion of key developments in digital marketing and media.

Today's episode is sponsored by Basis, the leading intelligent operating system for autonomous advertising.

Its enterprise AI solution transforms campaign briefs into strategies and media plans that integrate directly into omni-channel activation.

You can learn more at basis.com.

Hello, AdExchangerites.

If you've never heard that one before, that is the last time I'm ever going to say that, so enjoy it.

Now that I have your attention, hello and welcome to today's episode of The Big Story.

We're letting go of, you know, waiting for a month, three months to see what's working, what's not.

And because a lot of these innovations, AdExchanger named you 2026 top woman in media and ad tech for revenue.

And you've talked a lot about that accountability, and about autonomous 11s, your top performers who need very little oversight.

Tell me a little bit about how your leadership in the ad space translates to how marketing leaders can rethink what this actually means for the people they manage in their teams.

And then, uh, September 2024, just around two years ago, you joined the Gray Lady, The New York Times, as VP of revenue operations with a focus on programmatic.

And I will say, the title VP of revenue operations, uh, dot, dot, dot, with a focus on programmatic makes you like the perfect guest for, for AdExchanger Talks because we love talking to publishers about their programmatic strategy, and we're gonna get deeply into, into the old weeds on that.

But before we do, what is it about, uh, news brands that attracts you to them? Or is that just where your career path happened to take you? I will say, myself, I didn't particularly love online advertising or know anything about it.

I just happened to write about marketing at one job, and then ended up at AdExchanger because that was something that I knew a bit about, having gotten a job writing about it.

And so you sort of end up unintentionally specializing.

But I kinda feel like you might have a passion for, for media.

But first, we need to talk about this.

Shout out to James Hercher from AdExchanger for dropping this bomb last night.

Mm-hmm.

TTD blocked from serving ads on Safari.

So, uh, this is the first instance where the ads themselves are being blocked, which is obviously a much bigger deal than just having the pixels blocked.

Um, so yeah, and, and so interestingly, you know, I saw this.

I got an email from AdExchanger.

First time I saw it, I t- I tweeted it, um, giving AdExchanger their flowers for the scoop.

Welcome to The Big Story, a roundtable featuring members of the AdExchanger editorial team.

Every week we bring you an in-depth discussion of key developments in digital marketing and media.

Today's episode is sponsored by Basis, the leading intelligent operating system for autonomous advertising.

Welcome to AdExchanger Talks, the podcast devoted to examining the issues and trends in advertising and marketing technology that matter most to you.

Today's episode is sponsored by Basis, the leading intelligent operating system for autonomous advertising.

Its enterprise AI solution transforms campaign briefs into strategies and media plans that integrate directly into omni-channel activation.

You can learn more at basis.com.

I'm Alison Schiff, Editor-in-Chief of AdExchanger, and you're listening to AdExchanger Talks.

So let's talk about some stuff.

My guest this week is Abby Klassen, a hold co-vet and former journalist who recently took over as CEO of independent performance agency Tenuity.

And that's the stuff that a lot of times, you know, our clients don't have their data well organized.

Welcome to The Big Story, a roundtable featuring members of the AdExchanger editorial team.

Every week we bring you an in-depth discussion of key developments in digital marketing and media.

Today's episode is sponsored by Basis, the leading intelligent operating system for autonomous advertising.

You can learn more at basis.com. On what would normally be a sleepy September Friday, we covered two acquisitions last week.

Infillion bought Foursquare and Taboola bought Dianomi.

We always love a good exit here at AdExchanger, and we have our Editor-in-Chief Allison Schiff here to talk about these two deals and what they say about the ad tech market overall.

Then, everyone who expected a long, tortured, and contentious Paramount and Warner Brothers merger saga to play out over the next year will now be disappointed because the merger is moving forward.

Paramount threatened to move out and up and leave the state of California altogether.

Amazon drew 4% of Microsoft co-pilot citations in July, 0.1% on ChatGPT, and none on Gemini, per Tenuity data cited by Digiday.

AdExchanger reports HBO Max's Reddit account was compromised and used to run fraudulent ads.

In the same week, a media buyer's 9-year-old spent $118,000 on YouTube ads from a logged-in business account.

More than half of consumers say they prefer creator-informed AI recommendations, according to IAB findings reported by Marketing Dive.

Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today.

On the ad tech side, following our earlier report that Judge Brinkema's remedies leave Google's ad stack intact, the court has now unsealed her full remedies opinion two weeks after it was filed under seal, AdExchanger reports.

On the platform side, Meta is folding ad readiness editing tools and expanded APIs into a new hub meant to ease creator discovery and brand tie-ups, per Marketing Dive.

Target has hired former Hilton CMO Mark Weinstein as Chief Marketing and Guest Experience Officer, with a remit spanning channels, culture, and community, Marketing Dive reports.