Month: February 2025

Much has been written in the last year about how principal media has grown in use among major holding company agencies — and how little clients seem to know about the practice. Even though it’s been going on for years, the topic has grabbed headlines as it has had a significant role in profit generation for the leading holding companies Publicis and Omnicom.

One overlooked aspect — but symbolically important — is the increasing avoidance of the word “agency” in contracts being struck between those agencies and clients, according to five people who spoke to Digiday for this story.

The pursuit of principal media has ended up affecting how holding company agencies draft contracts with sizable clients, said Steve Boehler, who runs agency consultancy Mercer Island Group. Agencies that buy inventory directly from media sellers, then sell that inventory to its clients, are in effect no longer working as agents for those clients, he and many others argue.

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LinkedIn is encouraging publishers that are part of its pre-roll video advertising program to post more on the platform, and publishers are meeting that demand with little additional effort, in part by clipping videos taken at their conferences and other events.

According to Adam Banicki, Fortune’s head of video. Fortune has signed three brand deals for the Wire program, which launched last summer and lets publishers sell 3- to 15-second-long pre-roll ads on their editorial videos. Both the publisher and LinkedIn can sell that inventory.

Videos from live events in particular have been part of those deals, including one to two minute clips from Fortune’s conferences. A fourth campaign is being developed to go live later this quarter, and will include both video series and video clips from events, he said. 

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It’s been a month since President Trump signed an executive order targeting diversity, equity and inclusion policies, seemingly sending the backlash toward DEI into hyperdrive. Professionals across the board are feeling the ripple effects.

Multicultural marketing agencies braced for shrinking diversity budgets. Black-owned brands were caught in the crosshairs of retooled retailer DEI policies. Diverse publications questioned if media spend commitments will remain intact. Now, one communication professional says clients and sources that have agreed to press interviews about DEI in the past have suddenly gone quiet on the topic.

“I have never been shut down so fast by so many people. That’s never happened to me before, ever,” said a C-suite executive at an independent communications agency who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “I usually can find somebody to talk about this type of stuff and just gag orders all around.”

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Live from New York, it’s SNL50’s brand partners. NBCUniversal’s SNL50 celebration over the weekend was a massive undertaking that included musical talents like Bad Bunny and Sabrina Carpenter, former cast members such as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and fan-favorite celebrity hosts such as Tom Hanks and Emma Stone–with everyone stuffing into Saturday Night Live’s…

Joel Davis has been named president & general manager of NBCU Local Philadelphia’s NBC10 (WCAU), Telemundo62 (WWSI) and NBC Sports Philadelphia, beginning March 17. Davis will provide strategic and operational leadership of the media properties’ TV, streaming and digital platforms, and will oversee the local management team and staff. He will work closely with Telemundo…

Open internet advocates are asking a federal appellate court to reconsider a decision striking down net neutrality regulations that would have prohibited cable companies and telecoms from blocking
broadband traffic based on content.

Founded in 1998 in Los Angeles, the fitness brand Barry’s now has 89 studios open in 15 countries. Jackie Lamping became the company’s CMO in September, with the task of enhancing the company’s global marketing strategy and managing digital marketing and community outreach inside the brand’s studios. Lamping herself is a longtime Barry’s customer and…

In this episode of The Speed of Culture podcast, Suzy founder and host Matt Britton sits down with Mike Romoff, chief revenue officer at Reddit, to take us inside the platform’s evolution–from AI-powered discovery tools to the power of community-driven advertising. In an era where digital trust is eroding, Reddit has emerged as a powerhouse…

X users regained the ability to send links to “Signal.me” – a URL used by the encrypted messaging app Signal – two days after the blog “Disruptionist” reported the blocks, noting federal
whistleblowers’ frequent use of the service to report Musk-run DOGE activity.