Digital Publishers Not Into Ad Tech
Mike Shields, Senior Editor at the Wall Street Journal, has said that many digital publishers are reluctant to work with ad tech firms, with some refusing to run programmatic advertising. 
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Just Not That Into It

Upstart digital publishers are “just not that into ad tech,” writes the Journal’s Mike Shields. Vox, Mic.com and Refinery29 have been vocal about working with as few ad tech firms as possible. “We are not running any programmatic whatsoever,” said Mic.com CEO Chris Altchek, meaning that the publisher sells direct to advertisers. But in an interview with Capital New York, Mike Hadgis, Vox’s VP of global revenue, sings a different tune. “DigitasLBI and Vox Media both embrace combining technology, data, and creative to help brands tell stories to the Vox Media audiences and beyond,” he said of the publisher’s recent agency partnership. Well, do they or don’t they? Read more.

Twitter’s got a big problem with its ads biz, eMarketer reports. According to a survey by financial services firm Cowen and Co, six in 10 Twitter users say the ads they see on the platform are irrelevant to their interests. A pitiful 3.1% of survey respondents said Twitter ads are insightful, while more than a quarter described the ads as “OK.” But the majority of respondents felt that Twitter ads were a poor fit. According to eMarketer, “The results suggests that advertisers need to step up targeting capabilities if they want to reach the right audience on Twitter.” TellApart to the rescue? Read on.

The Amazon Ecosystem

Amazon has introduced Launchpad, a shopping and discovery platform that positions the firm against a host of startups in the shipping, payments and ecommerce space. Three partners that lend major cachet and capabilities to Amazon include Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator and Indiegogo. For startups in tech hardware or general goods, manufacturing is now the only major impediment. As Marc Andreessen points out in the release, this is another way Amazon is developing into “a real ecosystem.” Read on at TechCrunch.

Welcome BI

Business Insider is launching a standalone technology site named Tech Insider using a $25 million investment from German publisher Axel Springer. Tech Insider will have a staff of 40, though ad sales will continue to run through a central team. It’s a pivot into a crowded tech space. BI is also trying to decide whether diversifying into a portfolio is smarter than hosting diverse platforms under one banner (à la BuzzFeed).

You’re Hired!

DWA Names Phil Talbot As Managing Partner – press release

But Wait, There’s More!