Big Publishers to Online Advertisers: Trust Us (and No One Else)
Major online publishers are arguing that fraud in online advertising shows why they should get more of advertisers' business.
A newsstand in New York City.
Photographer: Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Big online publishers have a message for marketers: Stop putting so much faith in technology and realize that we’re the only ones you can trust.
This argument runs counter to one of the core principles of online advertising. For several years now, the advertising industry has been increasingly enamored of programmatic auctions. Instead of finding a specific destination, advertisers would plug a few of their key goals into an automated auction system—show my ads to young women; find me people who are interested in buying a car—and software automatically would place the ads in front of the desired audience anywhere on the Internet.