In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, programmatic advertising continues redefining how news publishers monetise their audiences.

This week’s Webinar, Programmatic revenue strategies: how publishers succeed, walked INMA members through the journey of two North American media publishers, Advance Local and Boston Globe Media.

Gabriel Dorosz, lead of INMA’s Advertising Initiative, opened the session with an overview of how publishers are succeeding with programmatic revenue strategies. He set the stage by unpacking the complexities of the ad tech ecosystem and highlighting the shifts shaping the future of programmatic.

Dorosz outlined the programmatic ecosystem, emphasising the divide between the buy side (advertisers and agencies) and the sell side (publishers). Between them lies a dense network of intermediaries — demand side platforms (DSPs), sell side platforms (SSPs), ad exchanges, and trading desks — each representing a “hop” that siphons value from the publisher’s bottom line.

“Each one of those hops essentially means attacks on the spend that’s spent with the publisher,” Dorosz explained. According to the ANA, only 41 cents of every advertising dollar reaches the publisher, with the rest absorbed by these middlemen.

Looking at programmatic overall, Dorosz said “the category of spend is thriving, but it is transforming.” Global investment reached nearly US$600 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit US$800 billion by 2028. Dorosz explained that while traditional display inventory remains central, emerging formats like CTV, digital out-of-home, and in-app advertising are increasingly transacted programmatically.

“Even audio [is included], though it’s just a small portion of podcast advertising that’s transacted programmatically.”

He also highlighted a dramatic shift from open exchange deals to private programmatic transactions, which offer higher CPMs and better control for publishers.

“Programmatic in general is here to stay,” he said, comparing the shift to moving from mail-order to e-commerce: buyers prefer streamlined, data-rich transactions. News companies, in turn, must adapt by curating inventory, optimising supply paths, and embracing AI-driven tools to stay competitive.

Advance Local’s resilient programmatic strategy

Grant Whitmore, vice president of ad tech and programmatic revenue at Advance Local, offered a compelling look into how his organisation has transformed its programmatic strategy over the past five years. With operations across eight U.S. states and a digital footprint that includes 18 news Web sites and 46 podcasts, Advance Local has made programmatic a cornerstone of its revenue model.

“Advance Local has always had a very robust programmatic selling machine,” he said. “The revenue that it delivers is sizable and meaningful for the company … it is the baseline against which we evaluate anything else that we can be doing on that page.”  

In 2019, programmatic was the company’s primary revenue engine. By 2020, Advance Local added dedicated programmatic direct sellers and implemented its first consumer data platform. The organisation adopted the IAB’s UID 2.0 standard and launched new verticals, including sports betting. Despite competing priorities on the page, programmatic revenue continued to grow.

A pivotal moment came in 2023 with the rollout of video advertising. “I can’t stress how transformative this has been for us as an organisation,” Whitmore said. “It has unlocked a revenue stream that has been meaningful and continues to grow.”

To support this growth, Advance Local deployed Snowflake, a powerful data collection platform that “allows us to put it to use for ourselves, for our advertisers — basically for every business unit in a way that helps unlock additional value.”

In 2023, Advance Local’s digital audience monetisation efforts — spanning programmatic, subscriptions, affiliate, and sports betting — fully covered the cost of its journalism and digital operations. This achievement reflects a deliberate, multi-year journey that began with a robust open exchange setup and evolved into a diversified, data-driven strategy.

Whitmore emphasised the importance of mastering the fundamentals: viewability, ad ratios, and core Web vitals. He urged publishers to “ruthlessly maintain their ad stacks,” vetting partners for unique demand and removing underperformers.

“Not everyone deserves to be there,” he said, referring to the crowded field of SSPs and bidders. “Make them prove to you [that they do] and if you have somebody that starts to not perform, don’t be afraid to kick ‘em out.”

On the topic of programmatic direct, Whitmore said most news publishers “lack complete insight into what is counted and whether we’re even participating. Much of the activity labelled “programmatic direct” happens behind the scenes, he said, curated by SSPs without publisher involvement.

For Whitmore, true programmatic direct means deals initiated with agencies, brands, or explicitly with SSPs.

While industry headlines claim that 90% of programmatic is now transacted directly, he clarified that only 25%-30% of Advance Local’s inventory falls under this definition.

Whitmore distinguished between “hunting” (direct agency relationships seeking high-fidelity targeting) and “gathering” (SSP-curated pools optimised for client goals). Both are valuable, but require different sales approaches and KPIs. Ultimately, success hinges on improving net profitability — not just shifting dollars between buckets.

Looking ahead, Advance Local plans to expand its programmatic direct team and scale video production, leveraging AI to meet growing demand.

“We do believe that programmatic direct is going to continue to grow in 2026 and beyond,” Whitmore said. “We do think that the shift in strategy is a permanent one, and as a result of that, we are continuing to grow our selling organisation to collect that demand to the best of our advantage.”

Boston Globe Media’s data-driven evolution

As New England’s largest media company, Boston Globe Media (BGM) represents brands ranging from its 150-year-old flagship publication to the recently purchased lifestyle publication, Boston Magazine. Ryan Avigne-Kennedy, vice president of sales and revenue operations, explained how the company has embraced programmatic as a means to sustain quality reporting and diversify revenue.

“When I joined the Globe, we were at a bit of an inflexion point,” he said, noting the programmatic infrastructure was under-serviced and “we had very inconsistent advertising standards and guidelines.” At the same time, the company was feeling the mounting pressures of a changing environment regarding search and social.

After a full audit across all its platforms, BGM identified different areas of growth. Each Web site was different, and needed its own strategy. For example, Boston.com is a fully ad-supported Web site, while Boston Globe is more subscription-focused.

“A lot of what we focused on over the last year … was looking at these very specific elements,” he said. “We had placements that had been pushed below the fold by editorial over time, without any communication to us. We launched an app that was incredibly undermonetised. We had lots of video, but there was absolutely no monetisation of that video content. There was no strategy to put forth and use it from an advertising perspective.”

The company developed tools to help it classify content more effectively, which provided greater value for advertisers. By investing in robust data infrastructure and audience segmentation, BGM has been able to move more inventory from the open exchange into private marketplaces and preferred deals. This shift has resulted in higher CPMs and greater control over ad placements.

Over the last year, BGM has seen positive results come from its initiatives. CPMs are up 37% at Boston.com and 41% at Boston Globe. Video revenue is up 400% year over year, and newsletter revenue is up 15%. As the company looks to the coming year, it will focus on first-party data, programmatic direct, and video.

“The success that we’ve seen with video this year, which has been primarily led by the advertising team, has actually now been adopted by the newsroom,” he said. “They’re investing in hiring more producers and creating more video content now that we’ve proved that we can very effectively monetise that video.”

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