Hearst takes promiscuous approach to programmatic
Under Mike Smith, the vp of revenue platforms and operations, the digital media programmatic approach is similarly ecumenical. After Smith was hired from Forbes last summer, he opened the door to letting multiple ad tech companies bid on its inventory. The popular belief says the shift to ads sold programmatically will lead to rate erosion. Hearst is a private company, and Smith wouldn’t reveal figures, but he said Hearst’s experience has been the opposite.
“We want to be as maximally available to buyers as possible,” Smith said. “That goes against the conventional wisdom that you hang your shingle in one place, because if you make yourself available in different places you undercut yourself by letting people buy you where you’re cheapest. We fish in a lot of ponds, and that has driven our CPMs and revenue way up.”
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