Forget the well-worn narrative that digital media publishers are always on their back foot, says Liz Gough, the co-founder and newly minted CRO of Puck. In a world of social media soundbites, Puck is proving that there's a place for long-form, in-depth, dishy journalism.

In this preview of AdExchanger's new podcast Inside the Stack, TripleLift Chief Revenue Officer Ed Dinichert shares his take on the evolution of retail media with AdExchanger head of communities Lynne D Johnson. Listen in to hear how AI, creative and video fit into the retail media equation in our inaugural episode of this new podcast.

The alternative currency bucket could use a rebrand. That referential and somewhat deferential phraseology – a reference to Nielsen – drives Peter Liguori, VideoAmp's executive chairman, a little nuts. It stems, he argues, from the "absurd notion" that the TV industry "has almost 100% of its eggs in one basket."

Viant is on an M&A tear, with two acquisitions – IRIS.TV followed by lockr – in less than six months. Although the rationale behind these deals might be obvious to ad tech insiders, Wall Street investors speak a different language, one that Viant CEO Tim Vanderhook has become fluent in as the leader of a publicly traded company.

LinkedIn has been investing in video like nobody's business. Lindsey Edwards, VP of product management, takes us inside the company's video strategy, which now includes CTV ads and a creator rev share program. Plus: Why LinkedIn decided to host its first NewFronts presentation this year.

Why bring data to SaaS applications when you can bring the applications to your data? That's what modern data platforms do, says Erin Foxworthy, global industry go-to-market lead for marketers and advertisers at Snowflake. Cloud-based platforms, meanwhile, are becoming the foundation for technologies that are increasingly integral to how digital advertising functions.

Marketing measurement is messed up – it's hard to argue otherwise – and most people agree on the reasons why: vanity metrics, imperfect models, unrealistic expectations. But there's another issue at play, argues Julian Runge, an assistant professor of marketing at Northwestern University – and that's a simple lack of communication.

Emet Advisory's Erez Levin explains why the digital ad industry should transact on media quality signals like attention instead of optimizing to outcomes, conversions and flawed attribution models. The former Googler also weighs in on the ruling that Google operates an ad tech monopoly and reacts to the company's latest cookie pivot.

Americans are dealing with tumultuous change. For an ecommerce ad agency, that means navigating the same tariff craziness, the Meta ad platform going haywire, seeing Temu ads pulled from the US market and AI solutions making a bid to replace human agency services.

In 2017, Mediaocean CEO Bill Wise predicted the demise of supply-side platforms. The category survived, but he's sticking to his theory that pureplay SSPs are a thing of the past. Plus: An update on Mediaocean's $550 million Innovid acquisition and Wise's counterpoint to recent criticisms of The Trade Desk.