Greetings and salutations, publishing party people!
As you may have guessed by the awkward enthusiasm and proper use of punctuation in the previous line, this is not Rob. After Base.Camp San Antonio and the Advertising Economic Forum back-to-back, Rob is either about to learn a powerful lesson that it’s OK to let go of control and trust someone else to get the job done…
… or I’ll just say now that it’s been very nice knowing all of you, as this will be my last day with internet access. (I’ve had so much coffee already this morning, I can taste electricity, so it’s 50/50 odds. Place your bets now.)
Anyway, I’m Liz Moorehead, and I help oversee content here at Beeler.Tech. (If you’ve been to the past few Base.Camps, I’m the very tall, not subtle woman taking social media photos, and I also run the Ops Out Loud “scream therapy” session for publishers.)
But this morning, I’m excited to share some big news with you…
Short version: Nominations for The Navigator Award are now open.
The Navigator Award gives publishers a way to recognize the brands and agencies that have made a real, intentional effort to show up in trusted news and publisher environments, especially where blanket approaches to brand safety and suitability would have made it easier to stay away. Award winners will be recognized at Navigator New York and Navigator London.
Not-so-short version: Honestly, I’m going to leave this part to Rob, who shared in an op-ed this morning:
“For all the talk around brand safety, a lot of the proposed answers are negative.
"Educate buyers. Pressure tech companies. Point out what is broken again. Some of that has value, but it did not feel like enough. I wanted to add something positive to a tough conversation. I wanted a way for publishers to say: we see the brands and agencies making the harder choice, and we want to recognize them.
"That is what The Navigator Award is for.
"It is publisher-nominated by design. I did not want this to become a standard awards program where people pay to enter, pay to promote themselves, and pay again to celebrate winning. That would distort the point. This starts with publishers because publishers know who has shown up with real intentionality. They know who has had the tougher conversation. They know who made room for journalism when it would have been easier to walk away.”
Maybe it’s the reckless optimist in me (or the coffee), but I’d like to think that the vast majority of you reading this newsletter want to live in a world where the fact-based journalism we need to function as a society isn’t viewed as a liability.
Instead, we see giving it life and oxygen and, yes, our sweet, sweet advertising dollars as an absolute imperative. Because the alternative is too dark a reality to consider viable.
That’s why The Navigator Award exists.
Publishers, we want to hear your stories about the brands and agencies who are really stepping it up as strategic partners in this area. Not which tech platform had the best “features and benefits,” but the actual human beings who worked with you, on purpose, in a way that demonstrates they see the value in brand-supported journalism.
So, this is our focus going into this week, folks.
We have an opportunity to shift the direction of the conversation about brand safety in a way that will be beneficial to all of us… as advocates for the future of publishing and as members of our society.
But we need your help to do it.
OK, now that you know about The Navigator Award (to be presented at Navigator NYC and Navigator London later this year), let’s get into a few important details:
- Publishers, you are driving the nominations. If you’re an agency or a brand that believes your support of journalism should be recognized, talk to your publishing partner. They’re who we want to hear from. Because the people closest to the work are the ones best positioned to say who is helping, who is showing up, and who deserves to be recognized.
- As a publisher, who should you nominate? Brands or agencies that supported coverage because it matters, chose news on purpose, went beyond the defaults for strategy, and operated like a true partner, not just a buyer.
- The best part is there’s no big nomination form or application. All you need to do is email us at support@beeler.tech, and we’ll set up a time with you to discuss your story. Basically, you show up with the goods, and we take care of the heavy-lifting.
- Do we love the technology that’s involved in brand safety? Yes. That being said, this is not an award for case studies about technology solutions. We want human-driven stories about strategic choices and investments made in brand-supported journalism.
Nominations are open now.
Let’s start having the right conversations about brand safety.
👉 And if you haven’t taken a look at the full Navigator NYC agenda, you need to. It’s expanding every day, and the time to raise your hand to join us is running out.
New for 2026, AI Publisher Response is a one-day event built for cross-functional publisher teams (ad ops, leadership, content and editorial, marketing, legal, and more). Together, we’ll develop a publisher-first framework that reflects the real work, the real constraints, and the real opportunities you see every day with AI.
To prepare for the event, here’s what you need to know:
- You need to see this agenda. This is where the most meaningful and actionable conversations publishers can have about AI will begin, and you need to be there. We need your voice.
- Teams from Hearst, Time Inc, Graham Media, New York Post, The Weather Company, WeatherBug, Thomson Reuters, Automattic, Better Collective, Cox Automotive, TeamSnap, and The New York Times are committed to join us. We look forward to adding you to this list!
- AI Publisher Response Live featuring Publisher Feedback from San Antonio on April 10 As you know, we just got back from Base.Camp San Antonio. Was AI a hot topic during our time with our community? Absolutely. So, we’re going to come together to discuss the hottest AI topics from the publisher perspective, the challenges we’re facing, and what solutions are actually worth looking at.
👉 If you’re ready to learn more, check out AI Publisher Response, and then raise your hand to join us now.
Here’s the latest news, and yes, it’s all true:
- Save the date: Post-San Antonio Camp.Fire on March 24 Camp.Fire is where publishers and partners come together to talk about the top topics within our community monthly. In this edition of Camp.Fire, we’ll come together to discuss the big takeaways and action items from Base.Camp San Antonio. Camp.Fire is exclusive to our existing publisher and partner community
- The DanAds Summit is coming to Stockholm on April 15, 2026 The DanAds Summit is where the future of ad sales takes shape, offering a unique perspective on the European market, comparing and contrasting trends with North America, and providing actionable insights tailored to today’s global ad tech landscape
Here's the latest:
- Brand safety has become too easy a way to avoid the harder conversation We have spent years talking about brand safety as if the central problem is technical. It is not. The tools matter. Suitability matters. Brands have every right to care about where they appear. But too much of this conversation still gets reduced to settings, exclusions, and default choices that let everyone stop short of the harder question: what decisions are we actually making about journalism, and are those decisions any smarter than the shortcuts we have gotten comfortable with? By Rob Beeler.
Want to get caught up on everything we’ve published? Start here.
A full list of all 2026 events we’re involved in, all in one nice little package:
- 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
If you are in Chicago, you should be joining their monthly AdTech Happy Hours. I would if I was there! Here are our Chicago friends last Wednesday. Thanks to Burt for sponsoring. Join the Community!
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Team.Beeler Out