• by Mark Walsh , November 4, 2013

Barry Lowenthal, president of the Media Kitchen, argue publishers will benefit when they “light up” their inventory with programmatic trading, with ad pricing rising as a result. But he acknowledges a lot of publishers have hard time getting head around programmatic. Likewise, Matthew Waghorn, communication planning director, at Huge, says many publishers are still “terrified” by programmatic, and the impact it may have on their traditional direct sales forces. He suggests private exchanges represent a sort of middle ground between the two approaches, giving publishers more control.

Lowenthal notes Media Kitchen is already working with 11 publishers selling inventory via private exchanges. He also indicates its inevitable that the traditional sales model is going to change because of programmatic. But that should free sales people to focus more on senior relationships than selling individual pages or banners. “The things a computer can’t do,” he said.