Rob Beeler + Chris Kane, founder of Jounce Media
If you’ve ever wanted to sit ringside for a conversation that pulls no punches but still hits with clarity and purpose, this one with Chris Kane of Jounce Media is it.
Chris brings his signature, analytical firepower to a conversation about how the balance of power is shifting in programmatic advertising. And, as usual, I’m the one providing the passionate publisher perspective. We covered a lot of ground, so here’s what you’ll walk away with, and why you should care.
We started by digging into the power struggle between DSPs and SSPs. Who’s calling the shots in ad tech today? And more importantly, does it matter for publishers? (Spoiler: Chris argues it might not, at least not in the way we think.)
We also explored whether all this tech infighting is delivering any meaningful improvement in ROI for advertisers or better revenue for publishers. I pushed Chris hard on whether this shift is ultimately benefiting us, or just creating new flavors of the same problem. If you’ve ever wondered whether “being curated” actually means anything beyond some middleman taking a cut, we tackle that too.
Then we got into the uncomfortable conversation about how publishers either opt in to or get excluded from curated deals, and what that means for your bottom line. Chris makes a strong case for why opting out of curation is a terrible idea for most publishers, and draws a sharp line between what’s happening now and the early days of header bidding. If you’re still operating like it’s 2016, this will be a wake-up call.
From there, we explore the path forward:
- Can publishers carve out more control?
- What does “owning your destiny” look like in a world of direct DSP integrations, resellers, and a million identity solutions?
This conversation didn’t pretend to offer easy answers, but it did offer clear signals. Chris argues the real opportunity for publishers is to choose high-integrity supply paths and force the DSPs to prove they’ll reward it.
We closed by getting to the heart of what we all care about: outcomes.
Chris made a passionate argument for measuring publisher success not in “working media” ratios or CPM deltas, but in business results. He asks a question I think we should all take seriously: Why aren’t we proving the open web drives real ROI like the walled gardens do? It’s a challenge, but it’s also a huge opportunity.
This is one of those conversations that doesn’t let you coast. And if you’re in this industry because you want to make things better, you’ll want to listen in.