Digiday Daily

September 23, 2026

After years of waiting for the DOJ to finally curb Google’s ad tech power, publishers are finding the devil in these new remedies. Senior execs were asked to rate each remedy on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 meant “cosmetic or largely symbolic” and 10 meant “materially changes how publishers can compete and make money,” and explain the thinking behind their scores.

TOP STORY

The Programmatic Publisher

Publishers’ scorecard on Google’s ad tech remedies: they're progress, but far from a clean win

After years of waiting for the DOJ to finally curb Google’s ad tech power, publishers are finding the devil in these new remedies.

OTHER THINGS TO KNOW

Join us Nov. 4 in New York City for Digiday Creator Strategies, bringing together creators, brands, agencies and technology leaders shaping the future of the creator economy.
When measurement frameworks don’t suit specific channels, campaigns that are working get defunded and campaigns that aren’t get scaled. Partner insights from Moloco.
New purchasing pathways — especially social and agentic commerce — are leading to environments where discovery and purchase happen simultaneously. Partner insights from Circana.

MARKETING

Brands in Culture

Marketers have bought into microdramas — but a lack of ROI might make them irrelevant

Microdramas are attracting brand dollars and audiences. The harder question is whether the format can translate that attention into meas.

Marketing on Platforms

In Graphic Detail: LLMs keep citing YouTube in search results

The videos getting cited reveal how different AI search can be from traditional Google search.

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM AUDACY

Why mid-sized podcasts are an untapped advertising opportunity

The biggest podcast audience isn’t necessarily the most valuable one. According to a new report, tightly engaged, mid-sized shows can outperform celebrity podcasts, with advertisers on mid-sized podcasts seeing 22% lower CPA.

AI Revenue Generation

What The New York Times looks for in AI licensing partnerships

The New York Times is seeing a more publisher-friendly AI licensing ecosystem, but the marketplaces still have a long way to go.

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM ARC XP

Publishers adopt new content strategies in the AI search era

Nearly nine out of 10 publishers (85%) are actively optimizing content for AI discovery or citation to combat the effects of zero-click search on referral traffic, according to a new Digiday and Arc XP survey.

DIGIDAY+

Member exclusive

Future of TV Briefing: Inside The Wall Street Journal’s new shows strategy

This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how The Wall Street Journal is switching up its podcast operations to accommodate video and social.