Simon Kvist Gaulshøj, CEO of Adnami, applauds the launch of The Publisher Platform in Denmark.

The ongoing domination of Facebook and Google in our industry has sparked something of a love-hate relationship among advertisers. We love that they offer cheap, easy-to-book, easy-to-track advertising with focused targeting, efficient analytics and huge audiences. But we hate the absolute power they have over us – as consumers as well as advertising professionals.

Together, they represent so much that is wrong with the 21st century, yet all too often brands cannot afford to turn their back on them. However, if left unchecked they could collectively bring about the end of independent publishing.

Publishers the world over are struggling to keep going as advertising spend dwindles and consumption habits change, with digital news facing increasing competition from the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

But unless the industry fights back, we will have no choice but to watch one news outlet after another close until there is nothing left but a handful of soulless, world-dominating social media outlets.

Dedicated platform
And in Denmark, the fightback has started. The Publisher Platform was launched in October this year, and is a dedicated platform that allows advertisers and agencies to buy all digital publisher-based advertising inventory via a single interface.

Every major national and local news outlet in the country has signed up to the alliance – as well as several financial and business titles – covering 90 per cent of all Danish news readership.

As well as providing a one-stop shop for all digital publisher ads, the system is fully transparent and hands control back to the advertisers and their agencies, allowing them to buy ads programmatically, at scale, in full confidence.

The existence of The Publisher Platform will inject millions back into the publishing industry every year, and in doing so, will preserve the future of independent news in Denmark for generations to come.

I am therefore naturally very proud that Adnami is fulfilling a crucial role in the operation, providing the technology through which the ads themselves will be created. We work with all parties in the digital advertising space to create high impact ads – things like skins, scrollers and wallpapers – which are proven to drive impact and action.

All of which means we are not only working to bring ad spend back to Danish publishing, we are also significantly improving the quality of the digital advertising that will be seen across many of the country’s websites, delivering an improved user experience and greater effectiveness for brands.

First-party data
And as the industry approaches the abolition of cookies, those brands who work with us will also have access to crucial first-party data, because we enable them to work directly with the publishers themselves.

The Publisher Platform was created in direct response to brands’ requests for a simpler, quicker and easier way to book digital advertising, and they have responded to its creation with appropriate enthusiasm: 150 advertisers signed up to use the platform in the first month, with most of those booking a campaign straight away. That is three-times the projected figures, and serves only to show just how important the provision is for advertisers.

I see no reason why this could not be something that was rolled out in every market in which the national and local press is being stifled by social media in the competition for ad spend. Here in the UK, for example, the Ozone Project is doing similar work, reaching 45m readers, covering more than 90 sites.

These platforms are a fightback against the stranglehold that Facebook and its kind have had on our media for far too long. We must not sit and watch publishers dwindle and die, we must come together as country-wide alliances to make it as easy as possible for brands to spend their money on long-established, homegrown news outlets that are crucial to the preservation of our societies.