This morning, I’ll listen to the sounds of the season: the dings of hundreds of OOO messages filling my inbox once this newsletter is sent out. Perhaps not the most joyous of sounds, but I do see the volume of people taking time off. Good for them and hopefully you’re reading this a couple of weeks from now…or since it’s now, do I mean then? I dunno - my time travel jokes didn’t always work until they did back then. Anyhoo…..
Why the subject line? Because even if the year itself is about to reset, the issues in this industry won’t. Current conversations in the community circle around transparency, traffic woes, and the shifting sands beneath us. To say that 2026 will be more of the same, I mean MORE of the same, as current trends accelerate. If you’re big into New Year’s resolutions, it’s time to make one: change. I’ll let you decide the whats and hows, but the next 12 months will change you if you don’t take charge of what that change looks like.
Team Beeler is around as we get ready to help change things for the better in the new year. That’s not to say we aren’t going to flip our work/life balance for a couple of weeks, so expect delays while we enjoy some time with our families. We hope you do the same.
Start your week off strong with a few essential reads from us and our partners:
- Flying blind no more: Playwire’s Jayson Dubin on providing real transparency for publishers
For years, publishers have been asked to show how they make money, whilechunks of the buy side stay in the dark. Auction data, fee breakdowns,and quality checks are important for supply, yet many SSPs and DSPsstill will not share basic purchase-price information. When publisher slack this data, they’re left optimizing on gut feel instead of real numbers.
- What will an ad ops department look like in the future?
From Lauren Farber, Revenue Enablement Lead, Wall Street Journal: “In November at Beeler.Tech’s Base.Camp in Lisbon, I had the opportunity to lead a session titled ‘What Will an Ad Ops Department Look Like in the Future?’—a question that produced equal parts curiosity, nervous laughter, and ‘is this recorded because I want to hear what everyone else says?’ energy.”
Here’s the latest news, and yes, it’s all true:
- Base.Camp San Antonio proposed agenda now live!
How do we forecast revenue when predictability feels like a joke? Should publishers be building internal sales teams, or is “buy vs. build” still the wrong way to frame it? What can we do right now with the tools, data, and teams we already have? Can we create real scarcity in a world of infinite supply, especially as AI reshapes audience behavior? How do we actually manage across direct, programmatic, and agentic channels without losing the plot? These are just some of the questions we’ll be tackling in San Antonio!
Let’s talk about 2026, folks, because we’ve got a lot planned:
- Base.Camp San Antonio: March 1-4, 2026
- Navigator NYC: May 5, 2026
- AI Publisher Response: May 6, 2026
- Navigator London: June 9, 2026
- Base.Camp La Jolla: October 4-7, 2026
- Base.Camp Madrid: November 8-11, 2026
Now is the time to raise your hand if you’re interested in attending any of these events. The earlier you raise your hand, the more we can work with you (and your budget) to help you be in the rooms you need to be in.
A full list of all 2026 events we’re involved in, all in one nice little package:
- Base.Camp San Antonio - March 1-4, 2026
- Advertising Economic Forum NYC - March 18-19, 2026
- Digital Day Camp: Spring - April 15 & 16, 2026
- Navigator NYC - May 5, 2026
- AI Publisher Response Event - May 6, 2026
- Navigator London - June 9, 2026
- Base.Camp La Jolla - October 4-7, 2026
- Digital Day Camp: Fall - October 21 & 22, 2026
- Base.Camp Madrid - November 8-11, 2026
The Job Seekers program is retiring
We have had our Job Seekers program for years, but this last year, it just hasn’t had the traction it did before. We aren’t hearing from employers that are looking for people. My guess is that employers have enough incoming, they don’t need to do as much searching. We don’t want our job seeking friends to waste their time, so we feel that it is best to retire for now.
All that said, we are here for you. If we can do anything to help, let me know. And do let us know if you are looking (employed or not), folks approach us about roles/projects from time to time, so good for us to know your status.
TD Foundation 20th Annual Holiday Cocktails Gala
January 22, 6:00 pm ET
New York Athletic Club
Celebrate our 2025 successes and discuss how the TD Foundation has been helping the children and families of wounded warriors and fallen heroes at the 20th Annual TD Foundation Holiday Cocktail Event!
Work at a media company or app developers on monetization? Earn $55 to share you views!
We are working with NewtonX and Ipsos to collect the opinions of people who work in Ad Ops, Rev Management, Executive Leadership, Product/Tech at media organizations. If you qualify to take the survey, you can shape the future of monetization technology for publishers and monetize your own expertise with a little extra cash ($55 USD) for the holidays. So copy and paste the link in your browser, take the survey, get your $55 gift card.
https://surveys.newtonxcommunity.com/referrals/e/a3c53500-3f41-4d96-9cb7-4ef22287c86a
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