The New York Times CEO on state of digital advertising: ‘Nightmarish joke’

In case there was any mistaking his position, Thompson added a further assessment: “a complete mess.”

“In terms of brand safety, you couldn’t think of a more dangerous environment,” he added. “A monster has been created.”

I asked Thompson whether he blames ad tech for the current situation. He said the entire digital media world is too premised on audience buying.

“The ecosystem that’s grown up is a strangely shaped thing,” he said. “It’s based on the idea that content doesn’t matter.”

Thompson is somewhat free to rip into digital advertising because of the success the Times has had in pivoting to focus on subscriptions. Thompson said the Times now has 2 million digital subscribers and believes it can get to 10 million globally in not too long.

Both Thompson and Jesse Angelo, CEO and publisher of the New York Post, took the opportunity to beat up on Facebook. Angelo noted that Facebook was telling advertisers less than 1 percent of their ads are next to jihadi videos. “Less than 1 percent? How about, one is too many.”

“Congratulations, Facebook, you’ve become the world’s biggest media company,” he said. “Now you have to act like one.”

Publishers are pressing the advantage in their fight against the duopoly, playing up brand-safety concerns. Angelo called critical comments early this year by P&G marketing chief Marc Pritchard about the industry a “turning point” in rebalancing toward quality contextual environments and away from audience targeting at all costs.

“Advertisers were browbeaten into believing that,” Thompson said of audience targeting without context. “There’s a lot more to advertising than perfect targeting.”