• Dow Jones CEO defends AI licensing deals and Wall Street Journal tech coverage changes, The Washington Post reorgs its newsroom, and more.

Publishers have lots of questions about O’Kelley’s Scope3

Brian O’Kelley wants to rebuild ad tech — again. 

The AppNexus co-founder, once a key architect of the programmatic ecosystem, now argues that the very system he helped create has become bloated with middlemen, riddled with inefficiencies and ultimately stacked against publishers. 

His latest reimagining of Scope3 offers a fix: an AI-driven approach that eliminates unnecessary intermediaries, allowing advertisers to buy directly from media owners. In theory, it’s a reset — a way to stop the steady siphoning of ad dollars before they ever reach publishers. 

At the center of this overhaul is Scope3, an agentic advertising platform designed to replace programmatic’s patchwork of inefficiencies with AI-driven automation that optimizes media buys in real-time. Alongside this, Scope3 is introducing “Brand Standards”, an AI-driven alternative to traditional brand safety tools, designed to be more adaptive and nuanced than keyword blocking in understanding whether content is suitable for ads. 

“This is the kind of technology that this ecosystem needs,” said O’Kelley. “No one could accuse me of being anti programmatic. I just think there’s so much opportunity out there to create value for this entire ecosystem.”

On paper, it’s the kind of fix publishers have spent years hoping for. 

And yet, if experience has taught them anything, it’s that every so-called revolution in ad tech comes with fine print. They’ve seen this story play out before — new platforms, new promises, new efficiencies, all of which somehow end up reinforcing the same dynamics. It’s why their initial reaction to the Scope3 pitch is filled with cautious curiosity, but also skepticism. 

What exactly is Scope3’s role in this supposed reinvention? Is it simply a demand side platform with a fresh sheen? Will brands actually embrace it, or will they stick with the systems they know? And perhaps, the most pressing question of all: does Scope3 truly remove the middleman, or is it merely positioning itself as the next one in line?

Needless to say, publishers have plenty of questions — just don’t expect them to ask them publicly. Several declined to go on the record with Digiday, preferring to see how the technology plays out before forming conclusions. The ones who did offer initial thoughts chose their words carefully.

A revenue lead for a publisher said: “It sounds like Scope3 is becoming a DSP? I guess that depends a lot on what the media products will do specifically. In terms of how this impacts publishers, I think that will depend on what sort of inventory they include or exclude in their packages and how meaningful the spend running through the pipes are but I would assume pubs that score better in their emissions, measures would fare better.“

Then there was the head of digital at another who added: “So now we’re getting yet another fee on top of DSP, SSP and agency fees? If brands are ready to hand over all control to algorithms, this could be a severe threat to agencies. If this new thing can do media planning and respond to feedback in an ever-circulating feedback loop, then the only thing agencies have left is buying/negotiating power, but big brands could probably get the same prices as well. The big question, however, is whether brands are ready to hand over control.”

Another publishing exec. took a broader view: “At first glance, they seem to be acting as a DSP integrating with publishers’ header bidders, similar to what TTD is doing. Since Scope3 acquired Adloox, they now have the brand suitability tech to enhance media quality assessment. If advertisers start channeling their ad budgets towards more sustainable inventory, Scope3 could capture some of that spend and drive demand. However, while sustainability has been a hot topic, substantial investment in this area remains to be seen.”

As varied as these responses are, they all point to the same underlying contradiction: Scope3 claims to be reducing ad calls, which would make programmatic advertising more efficient and sustainable, yet at the same time, it’s introducing new ad calls into the system. Perhaps that contradiction has an easy explanation. But the very need to clarify it underscores the challenge of Scope3 in a new way that doesn’t risk sounding like virtue signaling.

For now, publishers are watching. O’Kelley has been right before. But in ad tech, reinvention is never as simple as it sounds. The question is whether Scope3 is actually changing the system or just becoming the next iteration of it. — Seb Joseph

What we’ve heard

“The ground is leveling as far as Reddit and Facebook and Threads. All three of them are now significant social referrers, and that wasn’t the case two months ago.”

– Josh Awtry, svp of audience development at Newsweek.

Numbers to know

60%: The percentage of tests where AI search engines — including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and others — failed to retrieve the correct information.

19: The number of years John Ridding served as Financial Times CEO before stepping down this year.

5 million: Substack’s paid subscribers, up from 4 million in November 2024.

707: The number of media outlets the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded before getting shut down. 

What we’ve covered

WTF is “shadow AI?”

• “Shadow AI” — which refers to the use of AI tools at work that haven’t been formally approved by companies – could lead to security vulnerabilities and ethical missteps, legal experts say.
• Inputting sensitive data like source material, proprietary research, embargoed news and copyrighted information into LLMs could risk a journalist’s reputation and accuracy of their work, and could even be illegal.

Read more about the risks associated with “shadow AI” and what publishers can do about it here.

Creators aren’t sure what to make of Meta’s potential plans to spin off Instagram Reels

• Creators are both excited and concerned about Meta’s potential move to turn Instagram Reels into a standalone video app.
• Creators are wondering if this would mean a decrease in Reels viewership, and whether or not they’ll be able to take their Instagram followers to the new app, if a spinoff happens.

Read more about what a potential Reels app would mean for creators here.

Politically-vocal content creators are creating a headache for brands

• Content creators freely voicing their political opinions are making it hard for brands to find influencers to work with that are considered brand-safe.
• Most brands are still unwilling to show up next to politically outspoken creators, fearing potential controversy and blowback, according to agency execs.

Read more about brands facing this influencer marketing challenge here.

What we’re reading

Dow Jones CEO defends AI licensing deals and The Wall Street Journal’s tech coverage changes

Almar Latour, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and CEO of parent company Dow Jones, explains that tech will still be a “top priority” in The Wall Street Journal’s coverage despite cuts to the reporting team, in a conversation with The Verge’s editor in chief Nilay Patel. Latour also teased the success of some early-stage AI products being developed.

The Washington Post reorganizes newsroom

Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray announced a newsroom reorg that will divide its national desk into two sections to broaden coverage, Axios reported. The departments will get new leaders, and the changes will go into effect by May 5. 

New York Times subscribers are growing in red states

The New York Times’ top 10 states for subscriber growth rates in the past five years were all outside the Northeast and West Coast, Business Insider reported. Readership in the Midwest and South make up 42% of the Times’ total readership this year.

Study shows news unions distrust the way AI is being adopted by their companies

A study that reviewed almost 50 newsroom union sources found that members distrust the way AI is being adopted by their companies and integrated into their newsrooms, according to Nieman Lab. Unions are concerned about the integration of AI into their workplaces and the threat that brings to their jobs.

New York Times makes opinion section changes

The New York Times is looking to publish fewer editorials, and seeing if having other opinion editors get more involved in the editorial board and fewer people dedicated to writing editorials will boost readership, Semafor reported.