The Rubicon Project, developers of an automated platform that connects publishers to hundreds of different ad networks, and serves ads from the highest paying ad networks based on their own algorithms, published a manifesto on Friday for revolutionising the digital ad ecosystem and giving publishers more power. Quite rightly, they are worried that the way advertising inventory is traded short-changes publishers, limiting the amount of money available to fund high quality content. This obviously disadvantages publishers, but also disadvantages consumers of content and by extension society writ large. By restoring “power to the publisher”, the Rubicon Project aims at nothing short of saving society itself.
Whilst the manifesto makes for thought-provoking reading, it fails to address the key issue holding the online ad ecosystem back, and hence its prescription is unlikely to deliver the kind of result hoped for.
