Source: Digiday
CNN is vertically integrating AI capabilities typically outsourced to ad tech vendors. The shift reflects a judgment that algorithmic ad placement is too strategically important to delegate. Publishers like The New York Times have built their own recommendation and personalization engines over the past five years, each one a layer of algorithmic control that leaves the platform a point of competitive disadvantage for rivals. The stakes aren't efficiency gains. They're about capturing the data feedback loops and customer relationships that currently flow through third-party DSPs and trading desks.