Above the Fold: December 1, 2025

Does operating third-party inventory impact the perception of demand partners? One response so far: Some SSPs require legal authorization, but they saw significant improvements in performance and revenue. It hasn’t negatively impacted demand partner perceptions.

Above the Fold: November 24, 2025

Multiple publishers report a sudden spike in Google flagging direct-sold and house creatives for malware. Alerts started a few days ago, with inconsistent clearing and no explanation. A Google incident was posted, but issues persist.

Staying human: How AI is rewiring our minds and our industry

Staying human: How AI is rewiring our minds and our industry BY HAZEL BROADLEY, BEELER.TECH This month, we opened Base.Camp Lisbon with an important acknowledgement. In the face of uncertainty surrounding AI-driven transformations impacting the publishing and adtech industries, leaders are left trying to balance revenue optimization in the present, with preparing for an opaque … Read more

Publisher insights from Lisbon 2025 (the adtech edition)

Publisher insights from Base.Camp Lisbon 2025 (the adtech edition) BY HAZEL BROADLEY, BEELER.TECH Our Base.Camp events have become known for rolling up sleeves, tackling daily publisher ops challenges, and creating a community to solve them together. Lisbon was no exception. Here are just some of the many highlights. Protocols up to our ears (but we’re … Read more

Above the Fold: November 18, 2025

A discussion on early-November CPMs centered on unexpectedly soft pricing, with multiple publishers stating that levels remained below typical seasonal norms and that the traditional “November pop” has weakened. Several participants pointed to softer open-market demand.

From crawling to collaboration: How publishers can win in the clickless era

Camp.Fire: How publishers can win in the clickless era BY HAZEL BROADLEY, BEELER.TECH This conversation is for our exclusive publishers and partners only community. Please ask in the community for the password to watch this video. The shift is already here. When AI summaries and answer engines sit between users and source sites, clicks fall, … Read more

Another protocol to learn?

Wait, what? Another protocol to learn? AdCP, UCP and initial publisher reactions BY HAZEL BROADLEY, BEELER.TECH Two new acronyms crashed our calendars this month. At Base.Camp Lisbon, Scope3’s Alex Oakden introduced the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP). Two days later, at the IAB Tech Lab International Summit, Shailley Singh unveiled the User Context Protocol (UCP). Here, … Read more

Above the Fold: November 3, 2025

Rough Q4 for programmatic. We saw Q3 end pretty well, but are now seeing some unexpected softness across the board. Normally, we don’t see a quarter reset this sharp between Q3 and Q4.

adops.com expanding Google GAM360 reselling and support to Latin America

adops.com expanding Google GAM360 reselling and support to Latin America BY ROB BEELER + CRAIG LESHEN, CEO OF ADOPS.COM Recently, adops.com announced it was extending its GAM360 reselling and support services via the Google Certified Publishing Partner (GCPP) Program to Spanish-speaking Latin America (SPLA). On its face, it’s a logical expansion of their long-standing work … Read more

Tech tax, stack transparency, and why publishers are paying for complexity

Publishers today face a paradox: their ad stacks have never been more sophisticated, yet many are losing more revenue than ever to hidden fees, redundant layers, and opaque optimization logic. What looks like technical evolution often masks a quiet transfer of control – and margin – away from publishers and toward the vendors running the infrastructure.