Above the Fold: January 26, 2026
Is having too many key-values in a bid request to GAM hurt response rates because GAM becomes slower or unable to handle the request?
Liz
AI Publisher Response Live: Trust, strategy, and what’s next
The conversation moved through what an LLM strategy can look like in practice, how publishers assess leverage in a shifting marketplace, and what it means to rebuild audience relationships when discovery and attention behave differently than they did even a year ago.
The publisher response to AI in 2026, with Rob Beeler
In this Camp.Fire, Rob Beeler frames the conversation around a collective publisher response to an AI-influenced world – less doomsday, more problem-solving.
Above the Fold: January 19, 2026
How do you calculate ARPDAU? How do you calculate ARPU? Which team uses which metrics? One point made worth sharing: sometimes these metrics and how they are calculated serve multiple purposes – shareholders vs day-to-day, and that itself could be an interesting conversation.
Trust, scale, and the new economics of programmatic with Jounce Media’s Chris Kane
Chris Kane provided a rare, data-driven overview of how publishers and supply-side platforms are perceived by the buy side and, crucially, how those perceptions translate directly into spend.
Start ’em, sit ’em: publisher priorities for H1 2026
The big question for the first half of 2026 is: how do publishers protect, productize, and scale what they already have in a world shaped by AI, automation, and fewer traditional clicks? Let’s dig in.
Above the Fold: January 12, 2026
There’s a Beeler.Tech project to work with publishers to help create more transparency in the industry, with what we can control, and one area where they have control is who goes into their ads.txt files.
A safer bet: testing the real impact of client-side, server-side, and parallel bidding with Olli Järvilehto
As third-party cookies decline, browser restrictions increase, and page performance becomes ever more closely tied to revenue outcomes, publishers are under pressure to make decisions that balance monetization, user experience, and operational stability. And often without clear, comparable data to hand.
Brand safety theater: We have a keyword blocklists problem, people
Publishers have the right to publish whatever content they think will attract an audience and have it monetized by advertising from advertisers that want to be seen by that audience. Full stop. What is lost is that, when evaluating impressions is done poorly, it can punish publishers who have invested time, money, and effort into creating content.
Above the Fold: December 29, 2025
A publisher reported that they’ve been reaching out to demand partners to reduce RESELLER lines. Historically, they capped at 40 entries and required minimum spend thresholds to remain. They have since trimmed every partner to 20 entries or fewer, with no drop-off in revenue.