- Legacy Ad Industry: Consolidation, Or 'Spiders In A Jar'? in
Media Insider on
03/19/2026
Today the ad industry as we know it has entered its "spiders in a jar" phase, when, like spiders, they kill each other until there is only one left.
- Feeling Like Spring In Ukraine in
Media Insider on
03/12/2026
Russia hoped to break the will of the Ukrainian people by taking away their heat and power in a brutal winter. They couldn't. This was a winter survived.
- CTV Ad Buying: How Can You Be Sure You're Getting What You Think You're Getting? in
Media Insider on
03/05/2026
Among the issues: Verification of ad delivery is a misnomer, and fraud is prevalent.
- OF COURSE The Future Of AI Will Be Ad-Supported in
Media Insider on
02/26/2026
For one, advertising can pay a lot of bills. AI technology requires massive investments in processing.
- Reading Matters in
Media Insider on
02/19/2026
Fifty-two percent of Americans hadn't read a book in a year -- a stat perhaps pointing toward a scary future in a post-literate society.
- National/Local TV Ad Silos Will Collapse Before Linear/Streaming Silos Do in
Media Insider on
02/12/2026
As national TV takes on more of an audience-based approach, it's only natural we will see local impressions optimized into national programs.
- Is It Smart To Turn All Sports Fans Into Sports Bettors? in
Media Insider on
02/05/2026
Is growing gambling's share of after-tax dollars of Americans a good thing for them, their families or our society?
- TV Company Owners: R.I.P., Easy Money in
Media Insider on
01/29/2026
To drive predictable growing profits, TV companies will need to embrace shifts in their advertising business. For one: Kill old-school packaging.
- Celebrating Heroes In Media And Advertising in
Media Insider on
01/22/2026
I like that the media and advertising industry is good about supporting so many great causes, and finding ways to benefit those in need.
- My Take On Advertising, From Crackling Cold Ukraine in
Media Insider on
01/15/2026
Ukraine is the most digital country in the world. Its "Diia" app has everything people need on theirs phones, from ID to health records.
- Legacy Ad Industry: Consolidation, Or 'Spiders In A Jar'?
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
03/19/2026)
Ed, there is no question that many legacy marketers still organize this way, but increasingly less so. If you look at the companies driving marketing/ad spend growth today, they are smaller advertisers and e-commerce companies. Collectively, these companies are now outspending large brand advertisers and will increasingly drive the structure of our industry giong forward. Thus, I don't believe that the boxes of old that neatly divided brand and direct response spend in separate categories, budgets and departments are the way that we should be organizing our future, or our analysis of the industry.
- Legacy Ad Industry: Consolidation, Or 'Spiders In A Jar'?
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
03/19/2026)
Ed, my point is not that the majority of Meta ads don't have a performance oriented objective -- they do. My point is that it doesn't matter; they are all advertising. Brand ads are no more advertising than response ones are. Treating them separately is archaic in today's capacity to better measure results from all commercial communication and both short-term and long-term effects.
- Legacy Ad Industry: Consolidation, Or 'Spiders In A Jar'?
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
03/19/2026)
Ed, while I certainly grew up in the era of Brand versus Direct Response as two direct world and never the two shall meet, that was an artificial separation driven by the capabilities (or limitations) in media and marketing channels of the past. Today, sophisticated maketers see their marketing and "Commerical communication" spend as fungible and certainly see search, for example, as advertising. And social media today looks more like postal mail of the past than any media we had in the 70's or 80s.
- Legacy Ad Industry: Consolidation, Or 'Spiders In A Jar'?
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
03/19/2026)
Phil, I think that the walled gardens have done a pretty good job pulling the resources together ... automated, integrated systems. Lots of insights and reporting, and not just to their media but to the market and their competition. Heavy focus on outcomes. Deep integrations into enterprise systems and sales systems.
- Feeling Like Spring In Ukraine
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
03/12/2026)
Spot on Ed. Russia can't sustain its losses against the momentum from Ukraine. Of course, Putin is greatly helped by the lifting of oil sanctions. It will give him some more time, but won't be enough in itself.
- Reading Matters
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
02/19/2026)
Thanks for sharing Ben. I'm terrible at spelling too, and blame leaning to read first with ITA (phonetics). So many different raids to becoming a reader, but so much value we each gain, and society gains from it.
- Reading Matters
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
02/19/2026)
Thanks Charlie! I do believe that listening to books is valuable and nourishing, it is not reading. The brain works very differently, and the person's attention while listening is freqnely shared with anther activity, driving for example, which can have a signciant impact on the depth of engagement with the writing.
- Reading Matters
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
02/19/2026)
Josh, I'm much more hopeful than Stephanie. We look for reading when we hire and I have been pleasantly surprised about how many voracious readers we are hiring straight out of college. Our experience may not be indicative of all young people, but we have to all keep pushing.
- National/Local TV Ad Silos Will Collapse Before Linear/Streaming Silos Do
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
02/12/2026)
Jack, I agree that allocating budgets across 209 DMAs and then negotiating, trafficking, posting and measuring it as a national campaign was virtually impossible even a few years ago, as much because of social engineering issues, not just mismatched systems, lack of automation, lack of standards, etc. However, today, the corporate and organizational resistance is melting and systems built in the data-driven linear world for national can be adapted to incorporate local broadcast pretty efficiently. Many of us have been doing it in some ways for some time, particularly relative to the diginets, which have been pretty agressive about being included in national programs. Finally, pricing flexibility and better management of preemption issues at local stations is also opening up.Thus, I agree with Ed that integrating the local broadcast spots into national programs is not only essential for competition with the digital players, but is essential for upping TVs game in maximizing value for advertisers. Not only can hybridizing the campaigns now be done, it must be done.
- National/Local TV Ad Silos Will Collapse Before Linear/Streaming Silos Do
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
02/12/2026)
Jack, yep. Digital streamers sell geo ads all of the time. Plus, national programmers are pushing hard thise days on national linear addressable, so there is some movement. Just hopoding that the big M&A deals will, literally, force the linear TV silos to break down much faster.