Bonnier

Thomas Sundgren Joins Nexta as New VP of Commercial

Nexta announced on March 13, 2023 that Thomas Sundgren has joined as Vice President of Commercial. In this role, Sundgren will lead Nexta’s commercial operations, drive revenue growth, and expand the company’s customer base. He brings more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, including leadership stints at Bonnier and Schibsted, and most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer at United Robots (part-time). Sundgren had been an advisor to Nexta for over a year before joining, and is described by Nexta co-founder Martin Jensen as a seasoned executive who can help position the company’s innovative advertising products for partners. Nexta, an advertising-technology provider, offers an omni-channel marketing platform for publishers and marketplaces and counts Schibsted, Adevinta, Amedia, and JFM among its partners across Europe and the US.

Why Digital Media Company Recurrent Is Prioritizing PMPs And M&A

North Equity LLC launched Recurrent Ventures in 2021 and built a media portfolio by acquiring The Drive in 2018, then Popular Science, Field & Stream, Saveur, Task & Purpose, Donut Media, and MEL Magazine. Recurrent, which has raised about $400 million and has roughly 300 employees, is prioritizing private marketplace (PMP) programmatic direct and pursuing more media-brand acquisitions to reduce reliance on open web programmatic. CRO Matt Young and head of programmatic sales Jonathan Penn describe revenue as driven by direct ads, programmatic (open web and programmatic guaranteed), and affiliate commerce; in Q1, programmatic direct grew 8,000% from a small base, with Q2 up about 130% vs Q1. Notable results include Futurism revenue up 139% after year one; bobvila.com and The Drive grew more than 250% since acquisition. Donut Media added auto vertical and video expertise; Bonnier assets helped start science/tech/outdoor verticals. Partnerships with Aterian and Celestron anchor product licensing; MEL layoff in July 2022 signaled a pivot away from lifestyle.

Google Gets Hit With Another Antitrust Complaint On The Same Day It Strikes A Privacy Sandbox Deal With The UK’s CMA

Google faced parallel regulatory scrutiny on Friday as the UK CMA provisionally closed its investigation into the Chrome Privacy Sandbox after Google accepted revised commitments to address anticompetition concerns. The CMA binding measures require Google not to remove third‑party cookies until regulators are satisfied, involve the CMA and the UK's ICO in developing and testing Privacy Sandbox proposals, and publish test results to increase transparency. The agency also plans to appoint a CMA-approved trustee to monitor compliance and reserves the right to reopen its investigation if commitments are not met. Separately, a coalition of European publishers, led by the European Publishers Council, filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, tying into an EC probe ongoing since June 2021 into Google's ad tech practices. EPC members include major brands such as News UK, Schibsted, The New York Times, The Guardian, Pearson, Conde Nast, Bonnier, Bauer Media and Axel Springer. The complaints center on alleged anti-competitive behavior and effects on publisher revenue in the ad market.