This week I do the unthinkable and agree with Doc Searls. Discuss zombie websites. And something special happened with Jason Kint…



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You Either Die A Hero Or Live Long Enough To Find Yourself Agreeing With Doc Searls





This article is so business insider it hurts. It hits on a fantastic topic, one that the author could devote 10k words to and really eviscerate some people but instead it stops just as it’s getting going.



Mike Shields if you read this (and you have zero reason to read this) please keep digging on this article. Your final two bullet points are exactly what we need to hear more about.



The rest of you should read this because it’s great, if short.

I can’t believe I’m saying this. I agree with Doc Searls. Not all of this article, mainly because Doc can’t help himself by overstepping his bounds and claiming “adtech is cancer”… sure man, pass that shit this way.







An Industry-Wide Conversation





The vast majority of this article wrong and needlessly preachy (don’t stop being you, Doc) but like Sean Connery in celebrity jeopardy, despite Doc’s best efforts, he stumbles on a correct question.It’s the same question that Mike Shields was asking and it merits an industry-wide conversation.

Maybe it’s finally time we ask ourselves- Are audience-based buys and brand safety requirements mutually exclusive? Have we reached the tipping point for audience-based buying? This feel like the moment people realized last-click attribution was actually a highly flawed system. And despite their effort, it doesn’t seem like throwing money at the problem (or more specifically at DV, IAS, WhiteOps, etc) is fixing anything.



Maybe it’s time for a multipoint buying strategy. Maybe it’s time to realize that buying ads on a legit site just so you can cookie their users and find them for cheap on the open web is a highly flawed strategy. When any user can screenshot your ad next to an ISIS video and force your c-suite to craft apology letters… maybe where you’re buying is as important as who. I know I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said before but it’s important we keep having this conversation. Every step we take to make it harder for shitty sites to get legitimate ad dollars is one that makes the web better. Maybe then big mouths will stop calling ad tech cancer. Or we’ll stop getting fake news banners on fact-checking sites.





Did Jason Kint Mention “Duopoly” This Week?





Holy shit. We did it! From 10/15 - 10/22 Jason Kint did not mention duopoly once! My work here is done. I’d like to thank my parents for not knowing twitter exists, my wife for not caring about adops, and of course Jason Kint for not even knowing I’ve been mocking him for the better part of 6 months.

Current streak: 0 weeks







Other Articles





Two months ago almost to the day, the lead article for my newsletter was me deriding Mic.com for pivoting to video. In that time there’s been COUNTLESS ink spilled talking about how most publishers who do this a) don’t succeed and b) actually lose users.



Nevertheless, we watch as one publisher after another lemming off the cliff. Sigh.

What strikes me when I read something like this, first, how great this reporting is. Fantastic job done by Craig Silverman. The second thing that strikes me is how dumb ( the literal meaning of the word) this “scheme” is. I mean this is the kind of thing we’ve known about for years and despite all of the growth we’ve seen in this industry the fraud prevention and blocking still seems in its infancy.



How many millions of dollars have been spent on fraud and ad blocking companies to have something like this persist? Where’s the R&D been going to that I can just register a domain, buy cheap traffic, and profit? This is what I want Mike Shields to write about.



And if easy shit like this is still getting by then what are the smart people doing? There’s no chance in hell we’re catching them. This week’s BFD.

If anyone reading this knows Bob Hoffman please let him know that I formally challenge him to an online or in person debate about the future of advertising. I’ll bring the beer.







Holy shit this is super interesting. Note: I love “the history of” pieces so if that’s not your thing then this will bore you to tears. But for the rest of us the patent paperwork alone was worth the price of admission. Very cool look back at building the first ad exchange.

This is exactly what ads.txt is supposed to fix. Lot of big names named here and if I were a betting man I’d wager that this won’t be the last time something like this is written up.





Quick Hits

Jason Kint right now:







Shameless Self Promotion

Nothing yet but the next episode should come out either Thursday or Friday. Keep an eye out.







Thanks for reading and have a great week! Or don’t. I’m not the boss of you.

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