OpenX vs Sovrn

OpenX Names John Rogers SVP of Global Publisher Development

OpenX, the advertising technology company, has appointed John Rogers as Senior Vice President of Global Publisher Development. Rogers will lead the company's global publisher development strategy, focusing on strengthening relationships with publishers and driving growth. He brings extensive experience in the ad tech industry, having previously held senior roles at major platforms. This appointment is part of OpenX's broader commitment to enhancing its supply-side offerings and supporting publisher partners.

• OpenX appoints John Rogers as SVP of Global Publisher Development.
• Rogers to lead global publisher development strategy.
• Appointment announced on 2026-10-01.

Givsly Extends AI Values-Based Audiences to Political Advertising

Givsly, a values-based marketing company, announced its AI-driven audience discovery solution is now available for political advertising. The offering uses Values-Based Audiences, built with a vector methodology that combines values, inferred motivations, and behavioral signals at ZIP code level, rather than individual-level voter files. Political campaigns and PACs can segment communities based on more than 150 tracked values and issues, overlay their own voter files, turnout models, or CRM data, and aim to reduce wasted media spend. The audiences will initially be available through OpenX and Index Exchange via Index Marketplaces, with a broader rollout planned. Givsly says the solution uses aggregated, modeled signals rather than individually identifiable voter data.

• Givsly announced availability of its AI-driven Values-Based Audiences for political advertising.
• Audiences are modeled at the U.S. ZIP code level using aggregated AI modeling rather than individual voter files.
• The offering supports more than 150 tracked values, issues, and cultural signals.

OpenX CTO Joel Meyer Named Prebid.org Chairman

Prebid.org has appointed OpenX CTO Joel Meyer as its new chairman after he served as interim chair following recent leadership departures. In May, Prebid’s president Mike Racic, chairman Garett McGrath and product director Christian Janelli left the organization. Meyer, a board member since 2023 who also sits on the IAB Tech Lab board, said his immediate priority is hiring a new Prebid president ahead of the Prebid Summit on October 13. Prebid is focusing on helping publishers navigate revenue and traffic declines driven by AI search and new agentic ad-selling tools, while remaining protocol-agnostic and supporting standards such as AgenticAdvertising.org’s AdCP. Meyer emphasized maintaining Prebid’s open-source, neutral role to preserve transparency and collaboration across buyers and sellers as the programmatic ecosystem adapts to agentic and LLM-driven changes.

• Joel Meyer, OpenX CTO, was appointed chairman of Prebid.org after serving as interim chair.
• In May, Prebid’s president Mike Racic, chairman Garett McGrath, and director of product management Christian Janelli left the organization.
• Prebid aims to hire a new president in time for the Prebid Summit in New York on October 13, 2026.

Sovrn Partners With Multilocal to Expand Curated Deals Powered by Commerce Signals

Sovrn announces a partnership with Multilocal to expand curated deals powered by Commerce Signals.

Sovrn Partners with Multilocal to Scale Curation

Sovrn, a publisher technology and data company, and Multilocal, a curation intelligence firm, announced a partnership to scale curation across the Sovrn Ad Exchange. Multilocal's proprietary engine, cureon®, will support planning, activation, and optimization of private marketplace (PMP) deals on Sovrn's exchange. The collaboration combines Sovrn's supply, data, and commerce signals with Multilocal's curation intelligence. Sovrn reaches over 500 million consumers daily and has commerce data from over 50,000 retailers. This partnership aims to create more relevant and effective opportunities for buyers by translating data and supply into curated deals. Executives from both companies emphasized the importance of curation intelligence in programmatic advertising, moving beyond deal creation to continuous optimization.

• Sovrn and Multilocal announced a partnership to scale curation across the Sovrn Ad Exchange.
• Multilocal's curation intelligence engine, cureon®, will support PMP deal planning, activation, and optimization.
• Sovrn reaches over 500 million consumers daily across websites, mobile apps, and CTV.

Google Antitrust Remedies: Practical Effects on Ad Ecosystem

Ari Paparo analyzes the practical implications of the Google antitrust remedies for publishers, ad exchanges, agencies, and advertisers. Publishers may gain the ability to switch ad servers more easily, as AdX will be required to bid into other ad servers and Prebid, and the removal of Unified Pricing Rules (UPR) will allow them to manipulate demand pricing in GAM. Ad exchanges could benefit from non-discriminatory access to Google Ads demand, though technical and operational hurdles remain. Agencies with supply-path optimization strategies may find new leverage, and the exclusion of DV360 from remedies could create bidding differences between Google's DSP and ad network. The article outlines potential opportunities and challenges across the digital media ecosystem.

• Google antitrust remedies include allowing AdX to bid into other ad servers and Prebid, enabling easier ad server migration for publishers within six months.
• Unified Pricing Rules (UPR) in Google Ad Manager will be removed, restoring publishers' ability to set pricing preferences across exchanges.
• The remedies require non-discriminatory access to Google Ads (AdWords) demand, potentially shifting bids from AdX to other exchanges.