When Matt Prohaska joined The New York Times as programmatic advertising director in May, it was clear The Gray Lady intended to open up her ad inventory to newfangled programmatic ad bidding technology. Now that process has started in earnest.
“In the last few months, we’ve directly engaged our sales force and integrated programmatic in to everything we do as an organization,” Prohaska tells Beet.TV in this video interview.
“Our salespeople all around the world are selling programmatic programs – first in display, soon to be in mobile and then eventually in video.”
Programmatic ad-buying, in which buyers put commit cash to let algorithms buy ad slots against certain targeting criteria on their behalf, is commonly seen stacked in favour of buyers. Many publishers fear downward ad price pressure.
But News Corp recently launched its own programmatic ad exchange and Prohaska says: “It’s understandable that publishers would have a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction. There was a lack of realization of why buyers were doing what they were doing. Publishers felt invaded.
“It’s not turning the tables – it’s giving buyers what they want but having a little more control and transparency around what we’re offering.”
For more of The New York Times, watch our full interview.
