Join us Sept. 14-16 in Miami to connect with top publishing leaders
DIGIDAY+ MEMBER EXCLUSIVES
How every major platform pays creators
Every platform monetizes creators differently, with varying requirements and audience thresholds, and a propensity for change.
OpenAI's ads program matures
Media
Media Briefing: The post-traffic era of the open web is taking shape
The open web isn’t dead, but it is changing shape. Publishers are trading search-driven scale for stronger brands and diversified audiences.
USA Today Co. is reformatting content to attract more AI licensing deals
USA Today Co. is testing ways to reformat content for AI bots in a bid to attract licensing deals and unlock new revenue.
Walmart finally starts supporting Apple Pay and Google Pay
Walmart will begin to support contactless payment methods at select Walmart stores and Sam’s Club locations
Marketing
‘Inside, most of them are dumpster fires’: Confessions of a frustrated indie agency ad exec
From surprise corporate card cancellations to phantom return-to-office mandates, one former indie agency exec talks about the chaos behind the scenes.
The case for and against the ‘programmatic-ification’ of the creator economy
Creator marketing is racing toward AI ad-stack automation, but risks turning trust into inventory.
Digiday+ Research: The marketers’ 2026 guide to retail media marketing, including The Home Depot, Milani Cosmetics and Tinuiti
As the retail media landscape continues to evolve, marketers are rethinking where they invest, how they measure success and which retail media networks deserve a larger share of budget.
Future of TV
Future of TV Briefing: Which agency team(s) should be responsible for YouTube Shorts?
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how agencies are sorting out which teams take the lead for buying YouTube Shorts ads.
Future of TV Briefing: YouTube Shorts gains ad dollars but needs to crack social budgets
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at advertisers’ spending on YouTube Shorts inventory as the platform raises the revenue-sharing threshold for creators.
Ad Tech Briefing: TV measurement’s competitive reset gathers pace (with more job cuts)
ComScore and VideoAmp confirm large job cuts, just days after rival Nielsen makes bold M&A move.
Media Buying
Dentsu expands and consolidates its commerce and retail media offering under new leadership
One reason for the move to bring in new leadership: the commerce media and retail media worlds continue to grow at impressive rates
Ad Tech Briefing: AI advertising’s measurement problem is really a governance problem
As OpenAI accelerates its ad ambitions, efforts to establish common measurement standards become more urgent.
Media Buying Briefing: Legal woes can hurt a holdco, but will it matter to clients?
WPP is feeling the heat from several directions in courts of law. But will clients actually care, or think of leaving? Possibly not.
Annual research reports
Podcasts
Research
Upfronts
Future of TV Briefing: The upfront is overtaking streaming’s programmatic marketplace
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how major TV and streaming ad sellers are seeing upfront deals represent a larger share of their programmatic businesses.
Why Amazon and YouTube pitched operating systems, not just TV inventory at this year’s upfront
Negotiations over identity, infrastructure, AI-driven buying take place as much as programing.
Sport is marketing’s greatest opportunity — and its greatest activation challenge
In today’s attention economy, few channels or forms of entertainment capture the imagination quite like live sport. Partner insights from Sportradar.
This week, I checked in on skin-care brand Rodan + Fields’ plans for growth out of its affiliate-model roots. Additionally, Old Navy launches its beauty line and a former Weight Watchers CEO gets into the fragrance boom.
This week, I checked in on skin-care brand Rodan + Fields’ plans for growth out of its affiliate-model roots. Additionally, Old Navy launches its beauty line and a former Weight Watchers CEO gets into the fragrance boom.
In the first quarter of 2026, YouTube came out on top for the fourth year in a row as the ad-supported streaming service that received the largest portion of Modern Retail survey respondents’ ad placements and ad budgets — but the streaming industry is poised to experience significant shifts in the coming 12 months.
In the first quarter of 2026, YouTube came out on top for the fourth year in a row as the ad-supported streaming service that received the largest portion of Modern Retail survey respondents’ ad placements and ad budgets — but the streaming industry is poised to experience significant shifts in the coming 12 months.