The Shift Happening Now The open web isn’t collapsing, but it’s definitely contracting. Forrester projects that nearly a third of display budgets could disappear from open web environments by 2026 as brands chase performance and predictability in more controlled ecosystems like CTV, retail media, and social. Even Google has acknowledged that open-web display is “in rapid decline.” The reasons aren’t mysterious, traffic is fragmenting, user behavior is changing, and the monetization model that...

For years, advertising rewarded scale above everything. The biggest networks owned the advantage: premium inventory access, data privileges, and measurement capabilities locked behind enterprise spend. Independent agencies did the smart work, yet constantly found themselves fighting uphill. That system is finally changing. AI is breaking the legacy model wide open. Today, independent agencies have access to the same (if not better) technology and intelligence than the holding companies who...

The Digiday Media Buying Summit in Phoenix was more than another industry event, it was a real look at where media is heading. The conversations were sharper, the questions bolder, and the energy felt less about buzzwords and more about building what’s next. Across three days, one theme kept surfacing: the industry isn’t waiting for the future of media, it’s rebuilding it. From retail and commerce to TV and AI, the lines between data, creative, and culture are blurring and fast. Here’s what...