Archive for November, 2009:
Looks like the power is shifting
Well let me rephrase that, the power has shifted, and now publishers are just realizing it. .
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Web Publishers Fear Agencies’ Demand-Side Platforms
Web Publishers Fear Agencies’ Demand-Side PlatformsNov 29, 2009
-By Mike Shields
Top tier Web publishers–already wary of ad networks and exchanges–are growing increasingly squeamish about the potential impact of demand-side buying platforms created by the top agency holding companies.
According to sources, several publishers have discussed banding together to establish their own publisher-centric ad platform, designed to protect pricing and data for premium sites.
Some sites are advocating for the creation of some sort of top publisher ad network; a handful are even said to be mulling whether they should just say no to selling inventory to demand-side platforms such as Publicis’ VivaKi and Havas’ Adnetik.
At issue is the industry’s overarching fear of being further commoditized and disintermediated. In the last 18 months, the online publishing business has been rocked by a brutal recession and an ever-worsening overabundance of inventory, making business conditions bad enough already for sellers.
Adding to the mix has been the emergence of ad exchanges shepherded by the Web’s biggest companies—Google, Yahoo and soon Microsoft—along with new companies introduced by agency holding companies focused on purchasing avails for clients at scale.
Both these platforms are built on the premise of buying Web audiences using data and technology rather than selling ad placements alongside specified editorial.
