The prospect that publishers might walk away from ad tech vendors once seemed laughably remote. When it was mentioned at all it was mainly a negotiating tactic aimed at securing favorable commercial terms for publishers. Nowadays, there’s real intent whenever these moves are discussed.
Look at Bloomberg Media, for instance. A few years ago it would’ve been unthinkable for a publisher like that to say bye-bye to the money it got from a content recommendation ad tech vendor, let alone openly talk about it. And yet that’s exactly what it did earlier this month. It told AdWeek that it ditched Taboola — the source of a lot of cash it got in exchange for letting ads redirect traffic away from its site.
“Recently, we’ve decided to take a major step in developing a modern digital experience that supports this ‘audience first’ mentality and creates an optimal environment for our trusted brand partners to reach the world’s most influential leaders,” wrote Bloomberg Media CEO Scott Havens in a blog post yesterday (Oct. 24). “We want to create a better ecosystem for our users. Reducing the volume of ads, and the number of ‘ad calls,’ will allow for easier consumption of content, and speed up our platforms.”
The rationale is straightforward enough: win and retain more subscribers by shielding audiences from the low quality ads companies like Taboola run on their site. Or rather, this is straightforward to certain publishers — the kind that aren’t so reliant on advertising that they have to partner with ad tech vendors against their better judgment. They are a rare breed, of course, but they are growing in number.
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