Publishers want more control over programmatic. Some are finally making it happen

For too long, publishers assumed they were powerless to fix programmatic’s deep flaws. Instead, they leaned on ad tech vendors to mend a broken system.

That passive mindset hasn’t just held them back — it exacerbated their struggles. The rise of made-for-advertising sites and the proliferation of bid duplication are stark reminders of what happens when publishers underestimate their influence and allow themselves to be gaslit by others.

But now that’s starting to change. A renewed sense of agency is taking hold, with more publishers realizing that even small, deliberate steps can yield meaningful results.

Take Justin Wohl, an ad tech veteran who’s been quietly leading the charge. 

Justin Wohl’s playbook for publishers: less waste, more control

Over the past year, Wohl has shared actionable strategies to help publishers take back control of their programmatic ecosystems. His advice centers on a simple but effective idea: stop outsourcing solutions and start leveraging the tools and influence already at their disposal.

For Wohl, that shift began in 2022 with a move that was more maintenance than magic: cleaning up his ads.txt file. This file, which lists all authorized sellers of a publisher’s inventory, allowed him to audit his programmatic partnerships, identify inefficiencies and redirect spend to higher-quality supply paths.

By doing so and cutting ties with unreliable vendors, Wohl sent a clear signal to the market — and the results followed.

“We were able to pull back the margin we had lost — margin that we could then use to fund our publication,” Wohl said.

The math is simple: fewer middlemen mean fewer hands dipping into ad dollars that should be going to publishers. By cutting out those resellers, Wohl not only recovered lost revenue but also reduced the number of duplicated impressions being endlessly repackaged. The result: He didn’t just save money, he boosted the value of his inventory in the eyes of buyers.

Here’s why that matters: Resellers often flood the market with cheap, low-quality impressions. This leaves programmatic marketers paying higher prices, especially since resellers can make those same marketers bid against themselves for the exact same impression.

That’s not to say all resellers are villains.

Some genuinely add value by offering access to hard-to-find inventory or bundling ad placements in ways that make them easier to buy. That’s why Wohl still works with a select few resellers — those that generate enough deals-based revenue to be labeled “strategically authorized to resell” in his ads.txt file.

But this is just scratching the surface. Ads.txt is only one piece of the puzzle. Other tools, like sellers.jsons and SupplyChain Object, also play key roles in cleaning up the murky waters of programmatic advertising. And even then, challenges like inventory curation and identity spoofing remain big hurdles for the industry to tackle.

The long goodbye: How DPG Media is cutting its dependence on Google

By now, DPG Media’s quest to build a (mostly) Google-free ad business is a well-documented saga — but one that’s still playing out. The shift began in 2019 when the media company, fed up with Google’s ever-changing rules, decided it was time to loosen the tech giant’s grip on its revenue. But breaking free required scale. So, it went on a shopping spree, snapping up publishing companies across Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands to bulk up its reach and make its ad offering more competitive with Google’s.

With that inventory secured, DPG Media moved swiftly — migrating its ad sales off Google’s tech stack and onto its own. Then came the full-stack play: a proprietary data platform, a buying tool and even a creative agency, all designed to give advertisers an easier, more direct path to targeting, reaching and engaging DPG Media’s audiences — without relying on Google.

But that still wasn’t enough. Scale and tech alone don’t solve the biggest problem: Publishers simply can’t match the performance advertisers get from platforms like Google. So, DPG Media borrowed a page from big tech’s playbook, launching performance-focused ad products — shoppable ads, carousels and various in-app formats. The catch? They could only be bought through DPG’s ad business, not a third-party. The real advantage came from direct integration with its ad server, giving advertisers more signals to optimize against and, ultimately, better performance.

“We still allow third-party demand-side platforms to buy our [other] ads, and we still let third-party measurement track the performance of those buys — that’s totally fine,” said Stefan Havik, chief digital officer at DPG Media. “That said, we do prefer it when advertisers use our media buying platform. Ultimately, though, it’s up to the advertiser to decide the route into our network.”

Why a publisher took the hard road to programmatic independence

Publishers love to talk about reclaiming control over their programmatic ad business — actually doing it is another story. The costs, the logistics, the sheer headache keep most smaller publishers from making the leap.

And even when they do, commercial deals and industry politics keep them from spilling the details. That’s exactly why one publishing exec was reluctant to go on the record about their own attempt to take control. Instead, they traded anonymity for candor.

Last fall, this publishing exec’s company cut ties with its longtime programmatic monetization partner, bringing ad tech operations in-house. Now, its own execs manage direct relationships, with supply-side platforms, audience and data partners like Permutive and Lotame and a measurement provider — an extra layer of complexity, but one they believe will pay off in the long run.

It wasn’t an easy call. A revenue hit was inevitable, not to mention the added complexity managing new commercial relationships and the legal heavy lifting required to pull it off. But according to the publishing exec, the shift wasn’t optional — it was overdue. More of its ad sales are happening through direct deals rather than programmatic auctions, making it clear that controlling the process firsthand would pay off in the long run.

“The volatility of the open market over the last few years has led most publishers to do whatever they can to ensure that more of their revenues are coming direct so that more of it’s within their control,” said the exec. “While that’s been the case for a while, now advertisers seem more open to buying into those deals.”

That’s not to say the open market, where ad prices are set in real-time auctions, has lost all value for this publisher. It still makes up about 25% of ad revenue. It’s just not the cash cow it once was.

“We want to do what we can to ensure that our inventory is seen by as many buyers as possible in the right quantity and at the right quality — that’s all we can do as a publisher,” said the exec. “We have to be realistic and not dictate to buyers and vendors. We’re not going to change anything by behaving like that.”