• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 30, 2015

Contrary to conventional wisdom -- or at least conventional emotions -- programmatic isn’t a threat to publishers control over their advertising marketplace. It is actually, the opposite -- a way for them to reestablish control.

“Programmatic reestablishes the rate card,” Forrester Senior Analyst Susan Bidel told Publishing Insider Summit attendees this morning, attributing Meredith’s Chip Schenck as the source of that perspective.

Describing publishers as being like “deer in the headlights,” Bidel said many have felt like they’ve lost control over how they manage their supply and demand in the marketplace, but that programmatic gives them more opportunity to control it.

Among other things, she said, it can help publishers “attract and discover new advertisers” and also “use data more effectively.”

In other words, she said, there is more upside than downside for publishers to leverage technology, data and automation to augment and supplement their direct selling efforts by tapping into emerging programmatic markets. But they have to participate in it.