Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Sales are way up and ROAS is through the roof across search, social and ecommerce. At least, that’s what the ad platforms claim. But dig into the CRM, a brand’s primary source of actual sales data, and site traffic and engagement coming from search and social aren’t jumping. This is a relatively normal occurrence for…
Compliance is not a choice. But companies have some choice in how they tackle it. There are two main approaches. Businesses can implement a compliance program on a state-by-state basis, essentially devising different data strategies to meet the legal requirements in each state where they have customers. Or they can take a national approach by…
Two states’ health plans’ blanket coverage exclusions for gender-affirming care are unconstitutional, the full Fourth Circuit said Monday. A North Carolina state employee health plan violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause by refusing to pay for medically necessary gender-dysphoria treatments, a slim majority of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said….
In 2012, at the age of thirty-two, the writer Alena Smith went West to Hollywood, like many before her. She arrived to a small apartment in Silver Lake, one block from the Vista Theatre—a single-screen Spanish Colonial Revival building that had opened in 1923, four years before the advent of sound in film. Smith was…
Palantir, the controversial software company with ties to intelligence agencies, is turning to the agency world as part of its continued efforts to grow its commercial business. The company, which was co-founded by venture capitalist Peter Thiel, has pitched advertising agencies on utilizing its year-old AI platform AIP, according to two executives from different agencies…
Google’s yearslong effort to make online advertising less invasive has hit another snag. The U.K. privacy regulator says Google’s proposed replacements for cookies need to do more to protect consumer privacy, according to internal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Google’s proposed technology, dubbed Privacy Sandbox, leaves gaps that can be exploited to undermine privacy and identify users…
When Maria Cantwell first ran for the U.S. Senate, she championed what was then an unconventional political cause: internet privacy. “What you do on your computer should be your business, and no one else’s,” Cantwell, the dot-com millionaire and former U.S. House member, said in a 2000 campaign video that showed her huddled around a…
Nine digital publishing execs that spoke with Digiday said they are investing in other social platforms like Instagram and TikTok to grow their reach. But the question remains if alternative platforms can actually make up the social referral deficit. As Digiday reported last year, those platforms do more for publishers trying to build up their…
Google Is Killing Retro Dodo & Other Independent Sites It honestly breaks my heart to write this article, but I want to be as transparent as possible with our readers because you are the ones that have quite literally kept our lights on over the past five years, and you deserve to know the truth…
Forbes for years ran an alternate version of its website where it packed ads that were intended to run on Forbes.com, another sign that brands don’t always get what they pay for in the opaque digital-advertising market. The alternate site, which Forbes shut down Tuesday following inquiries from The Wall Street Journal, featured stories from…