• by Joe Mandese , 7 hours ago

As far as years of transition go, 2025 was a doozie in general, but for the agency media services industry in particular.

We lost some of our most pioneering personas, including OG Dennis Holt, network TV marketer and serial media agency founder and mentor Alan Cohen, long-time GroupMer Dominic Proctor.

We also lost "GroupM" early in the year when WPP restructured the legacy media services brand as "WPP Media."

GroupM's demise presaged the loss of several other agency brands -- including Interpublic, IPG Mediabrands, Magna, Omnicom Media Group, Mullen, Lowe, DDB, FCB and others following Omnicom's acquisition of Interpublic.

And we lost what arguably was the most important benchmarking for the advertising economy -- Interpublic's long-time ad-spending forecasts -- although others have emerged to fill the public record gap, especially WPP Media and Dentsu, as well as some venerable non-agency holding company sources.

And according to at least one expert -- Madison and Wall's Brian Wieser -- we lost the craft of media planning, too.

As for the ad-supported media supply chain, some iconic brands have also sunset, including MTV: Music Television, AOL's dial-up service, and pretty soon, CBS' "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

Perhaps most troubling of all, we lost the independence of several important regulatory agencies, especially the FCC and FTC, at least for the next few years.

On a broader note, the Americans among us have lost some fundamental rights -- the rule of law, due process, birthright citizenship for some, the separation of church and state, reproductive rights, etc., as well as federal agencies and policies created to ensure we could all pursue our Founders' trifectaL life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

During a year in which almost everything related to government -- especially oversight and regulation of the media industry -- became extremely politicized, it's worth noting that the current administration already has accomplished 50% of its goal of "deconstructing the administrative state" -- the institutions originally created to protect and create a more perfect life for Americans.

According to the Project 2025 tracker, the current Trump administration passed the halfway mark by the end of its first calendar year in office, including the complete undermining of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, two-thirds of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, and a big chunk of the Federal Communications commission with more to complete on its agenda over the next few years.