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How AI’s hit to publisher traffic is quietly rewiring media M&A
Publishers’ AI-driven traffic declines are cooling M&A, stalling deals and lowering valuations. Some analysts are optimistic about 2026.
Media
Marketers move to bring transparency to creator and influencer fees
What was once a direct handoff now threads through a growing constellation of agencies, platforms, networks, ad tech vendors and assorted brokers, each taking something before the creator gets paid.
Inside The Atlantic’s AI bot blocking strategy
The Atlantic’s CEO explains how it evaluates AI crawlers to block those that bring no traffic or subscribers, and to provide deal leverage.
Media Briefing: Tough market, but Q4 lifts publishers’ hopes for 2026
Publishers report stronger-than-expected Q4 ad spending, with many seeing year-over-year gains.
Marketing
How consumers are using AI to shop in 2025 — by the numbers
AI is reshaping the 2025 holiday shopping journey, from conversational discovery to commerce.
The case for and against AI-driven SEO in the zero-click era
As generative AI reshapes search, marketers debate the value of committing (or overcommitting) to an AI SEO strategy.
Hiring program in energy tech sector enlists military veterans to fill data center skills gap
Data center demand is projected to grow 33% annually by 2030, while the industry struggles to find qualified candidates for increasingly complex systems.
Future of TV
Future of TV Briefing: The creator economy needs a new currency for brand deals
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at why paying creators based on reach misses the mark and what IAB is doing to clear up the creator-brand currency situation.
Future of TV Briefing: WTF is IAB Tech Lab’s device attestation tactic to combat CTV ad fraud?
This week’s Future of TV Briefing breaks down the CTV ad industry’s new tool for fighting device spoofing.
Future of TV Briefing: Streaming subscribers save $16 through bundles
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how much money people are actually signing through streaming subscription bundles and which streamers they plan to subscribe to in perpetuity.
Media Buying
Ad Tech Briefing: Pragmatism, not idealism, will determine the fate of Google’s ad tech empire
Judge Brinkema signals a cautious, pragmatic path as the curtain begins to fall in the remedies phase of Google’s ad tech trial.
‘We got scared’: Confessions of an ad tech exec’s AI agent experiment
Agencies, ad-tech companies and publishers are racing to test AI media agents. Not all those tests are successful — even some that are.
Amazon quietly blocks more of OpenAI’s ChatGPT web crawlers from accessing its site
The e-commerce giant has quietly blocked more OpenAI-related bots from crawling Amazon.com, according to updates in its publicly visible robots.txt file.
Annual research reports
Podcasts
Research
Anthony Stephan talks about the new tool that’s part of the company’s $1.4 billion investment in professional development.
Anthony Stephan talks about the new tool that’s part of the company’s $1.4 billion investment in professional development.
MAC Cosmetics’s svp of global marketing, Emily Bromfield, shared the brand’s live-streaming plans for Cyber Week and beyond.
MAC Cosmetics’s svp of global marketing, Emily Bromfield, shared the brand’s live-streaming plans for Cyber Week and beyond.
Carter’s CMO Sarah Crockett joined the company in the summer of 2025 with a goal of doing more realistic, relevant storytelling around childhood and parenting. In an interview with Modern Retail, she shared more about her approach.
Carter’s CMO Sarah Crockett joined the company in the summer of 2025 with a goal of doing more realistic, relevant storytelling around childhood and parenting. In an interview with Modern Retail, she shared more about her approach.