COLOGNE — Whether it was The Guardian urging publishers to take back control of their ad-tech stack or eBay concerned about putting all its eggs in one basket, it is clear that publishers have become increasingly concerned about the benefits they get from using third-party ad-tech platforms.
And Danish publisher JP/Politikens Hus is no different. The company was formed as a merger between Jyllands-Posten Holding and A/S Politiken Holding, and is one of Denmark’s largest media houses, with national titles like Ekstra Bladet.
Like most publishers, it has adopted programmatic ad sales methods in recent years. But, in this video interview with Beet.TV, JP/Politikens Hus digital sales and ad-tech director Signe Skarequist says all is not rosy.
“(It’s) so important that we have the control over the technologies, so that we know exactly what happens behind (the scenes), and also to make sure that we do not put our digital advertising business and the destiny of our digital advertising business into the hands of technologies that are not transparent,” Skarequist says.
“I have to be honest and say, we see some challenges with that today. Some platforms, they are not only technology providers but actually they also have their own business. In some ways you can say that they are competitors to us as publishers. If they are a competitor to us, it doesn’t make sense.
“So we really have to be strong in the technologies, and we have a lot of new people in our house. It’s not only sales people anymore, but we also have all the technical competences to make sure that we always do the right choice when we choose different technologies. We prefer to have the direct dialog with the buy side and to create deals.”
This video is part of a series produced at DMEXCO 2018 in Cologne titled: “Finding Success in a Time of Transformation.” It is is presented by PubMatic. For segments from the series, please visit this page.
