Save 50% on a 3-month Digiday+ membership. Ends Dec 5.
As a publishing veteran, Jim Spanfeller takes a skeptical view of ad tech. It’s not that the former Forbes.com CEO doesn’t think technology is important to modern media companies — he does — it’s just that he sees too much attention, energy and venture capital devoted to systems that commoditize ad inventory.
Speaking at the Digiday Publishing Summit in West Palm Beach, Fla., the publisher of The Daily Meal laid out his case that the ad tech era is coming to a close, as venture capitalists realize the “myopia with demand fulfillment” in ad tech isn’t that great for returns. And it’s unclear how all this activity has improved the fortunes of marketers and publishers.
“We’re seeing lots and lots of money being sucked out by the middlemen,” he said.
There are other issues. Spanfeller points out the problems with online data accuracy. After all, he wonders, why do data providers sell 25 million auto intenders segments that are presumed to buy a car within three months when well less than half that number buy cars each year? What’s more, the “ugly tonnage” of online media today means that prices continue to decline. And systems that are notionally an improvement over the black box world of the ad network are themselves rather opaque.
“All of this money has flowed into ad tech but not a lot of profits have been generated out of it,” Spanfeller noted.
See the full video of Spanfeller’s presentation below.
Ad position: web_incontent_pos1
More in Media
What publishers are wishing for this holiday season: End AI scraping and determine AI-powered audience value
Publishers want a fair, structured, regulated AI environment and they also want to define what the next decade of audience metrics looks like.
Digiday+ Research Subscription Index 2025: Subscription strategies from Bloomberg, The New York Times, Vox and others
Digiday’s third annual Subscription Index examines and measures publishers’ subscription strategies to identify common approaches and key tactics among Bloomberg, The New York Times, Vox and others.
From lawsuits to lobbying: How publishers are fighting AI
We may be closing out 2025, but publishers aren’t retreating from the battle of AI search — some are escalating it, and they expect the fight to stretch deep into 2026.
Ad position: web_bfu