With trust in news providers reaching record lows, U.S. news publishers face the twin challenges of earning trust back while remaking themselves to keep pace with changing technology and reader behaviors. Hear how The Guardian US is tackling these issues as well as ad blocking, native, and programmatic.

Ad blocking poses a fundamental challenge to the century-old media bargain with consumers, free/near-free content in exchange for sponsor interruptions. We explore the first wave of publisher responses, from reminding consumers of the perennial bargain, to offering paid content alternative, to recalibrating ad loads. What are we learning about the motives for ad-blocking, the viable solutions, and how to open the conversation with consumers? Is barking the bromide that we just need to “make better ads” really enough? Are there more sophisticated, actionable solutions? 

A raft of digital native publishers rushed to market this year claiming to have cracked the code on millennial media consumption. From blending lifestyle and fashion with hard news to devising novel formats and social drivers on devices, these publishers argue that a new generation comes at their content differently? We ask, who is the millennial media consumer? Do they demand us to rethink content, context and format? And how should legacy media brands respond?

The longstanding debate over publishers investing resources mobile app strategies over mobile Web has evolved along with the mobile platforms and technologies themselves. Changes in mobile search, app indexing, iOS and Android app cross-linking, alerts and now Google AMP are evolving mobile discovery and the routes media take to access consumers and maintain relationships. What is the new app-vs-Web equation for publishers?

The Ad-Blocking Challenge - David Chavern, CEO, Newspaper Association of America
Media for Millennials  - Mike Rothman, CEO, Fatherly
Apps v. Web - Shaun Koiner, Chief Product Officer, PerformMedia/The Sporting News

Header bidding is the new, new thing – promising publishers an upper hand in the programmatic ad economy. By blending direct and third party buyers into a single view, publishers are supposed to get a truer picture of market value for any impression and realize a higher yield. Maybe. Header bidding adds to the ad-tech, complexity, cost that are already weighing down the eco-system. It can worsen a latency issue that is already sending consumers to their ad-blockers. Is this a fix for the challenge of monetizing programmatic or just an amplification of ad-tech’s worst qualities?

The “Upfront” is not just a concept for major broadcasters but in fact can help create more sustainable, predictable business models for all digital media. Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Eric Myers shows how to create a calendar of event driven editorial coverage that can align independent content with client initiatives well in advance. He demonstrates how the AJC team creates a guide and system that allows clients and publishers to appropriately plan resources around content needs throughout the calendar year and deepen their business partnership over the long term.

Instant Articles, SnapChat, Apple News, Google AMP – the distribution options are piling up. But every publisher has to do its own cost/benefit math via a complex calculus. What does their brand get back from how much effort, distributed content, shared or lost ad revenue? How have the platforms themselves evolved in their willingness to share revenue, audience data and analytics? We ask companies to report their early returns.  

Across the industry, publishers are harnessing their own data to grow on site engagement and help advertisers achieve stronger campaign results. In this session, Chip Schenck, SVP and Chief Data Officer of Meredith Corp., will share how Meredith has leveraged its data to boost ad performance, improve consumer marketing, make its offline platforms more valuable, and establish entirely new revenue streams. 

Header Bidding - Dan Ambrose, Principal, Ambro.com
Working with Platforms - Gretchen Tibbits, COO, LittleThings
Millennial Women: Love ‘Em, Don’t Judge 'em - Bonnie Fuller, President and Editor in Chief, Hollywood Life

Rick Hamann, Chief Creative Officer of Onion Inc., will share the secret formula for creating the world's greatest branded content. In addition to overseeing Onion, Inc.’s various properties and creative endeavors, Hamann heads up in-house creative services agency, Onion Labs, which combines the best comedy writers and marketing talent to create advertising content worthy of The Onion name.

Three years into the digital custom content trend what have we learned about what makes these business models work…or fail? How can studios move beyond one-hit wonders that produce cool case studies and secure a flow of reliable business? What does an effective content studio sales team look like and how can it meet the challenge of maintaining that flow? What editorial staffing strategies work for different organizations to make the cost structure work? And ultimately, do publishers really want to look and act more like creative ad agencies? Is this really core to their mission and skill set?

In a world of iTunes, Spotify and Netflix, consumers appear ready to pay for digital content again. But what do you do if you aren’t hulu, HBO or Amazon? How are other media brands exploring memberships, micropayments, and aggregation apps for additional consumer-direct revenue? They appear to be learning that you don’t have to be Amazon or Netflix to learn something from their successes.

Content Studio Economics - Lindsay Allen, Senior Director, Content Marketing Development, Evolve Media 
Paid Content 2.0 - Heidi Cho, VP Digital Content,   Rodale Inc.