The Trade Desk Launches OpenPath, Providing Advertisers with Direct Access to Premium Publisher Advertising Inventory

Reuters, The Washington Post, Gannett | USA Today Network, McClatchy, Hearst Magazines, Hearst Newspapers, Tribune Publishing, Conde Nast, Nexstar Digital Among Leading Publishers to Join OpenPath

Global advertising technology leader, The Trade Desk, announced the launch of OpenPath, a new product designed to provide advertisers with direct access to premium digital advertising inventory. Initial publisher partners to join OpenPath include Reuters, The Washington Post, Gannett | USA Today Network, Conde Nast, McClatchy, Hearst Magazines, Hearst Newspapers, Advance Local, MediaNews Group, Tribune Publishing, Nexstar Digital and CafeMedia, among others.

OpenPath enables publishers the ability to integrate directly with The Trade Desk. In doing so, advertisers can gain direct access to advertising impressions created by those publishers, and publishers are better positioned to maximize revenue from those impressions. In this way, OpenPath aims to remove the inefficiencies often present in the programmatic supply chain for digital advertising, including opaque and harmful privileges of the walled gardens.

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“Conde Nast is focused on helping our advertising clients leverage both our influential content and our first-party data offerings”

“OpenPath levels the playing field for advertisers, ensuring they get transparent and objective access to the very best digital advertising inventory, starting with many of the world’s top journalistic outlets,” said Jeff Green, co-founder, chairman and CEO, The Trade Desk. “OpenPath is an excellent example of industry leaders working together to advance an open market that ensures transparent price competition and maximizes value for both advertisers and publishers. With that in mind, as OpenPath launches, The Trade Desk will turn off Google Open Bidding on its platform.”

With this announcement, The Trade Desk remains committed to serving only advertisers. Since its inception, the company has worked to increase supply chain optimization and transparency on behalf of its advertising clients. OpenPath is the most significant step yet in this effort. The Trade Desk is not entering the supply side of digital advertising, and will not provide supply side services, such as yield management. OpenPath provides publishers with direct access to advertiser demand, and the ability to continue to leverage their existing yield management tools and partners.

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Select publishers comment on OpenPath:

Reuters – “As the world’s leading provider of trusted news, we are excited to partner with The Trade Desk on a solution that will drive the media industry forward in a positive way,” said Eric Danetz, Head of Revenue, Reuters. “Transparency and trust are key to any client relationship. We expect this solution to guide advertisers back to trusted news environments where their media dollars will reach an engaged audience of globally-minded individuals and professionals while driving successful business outcomes.”

Conde Nast – “Conde Nast is focused on helping our advertising clients leverage both our influential content and our first-party data offerings,” said Deborah Brett, Global Head of Revenue Operations & Enterprise Innovation, Conde Nast. “We call this our IP/1P strategy. We are pleased to be working with The Trade Desk on OpenPath to enable deeper conversations with our clients about inventory transparency and performance that further strengthen how our brands and data solutions drive outcomes that matter most to them.”

The Washington Post/Zeus – “We have long believed that a more streamlined supply chain benefits both advertisers and publishers. With Zeus, we have seen this translate into real revenue for publishers as they’ve taken control of their programmatic strategy,” said Julia Belanger, GM of Zeus at The Washington Post. “We’re pleased to partner with The Trade Desk, creating an OpenPath integration that enables our Zeus Performance publishers access to this new network.”

McClatchy – “OpenPath aligns with our objective to build a transparent, well-lit digital ad environment, driven by journalism that strengthens the communities we serve,” said Tony Berg, Chief Revenue Officer, McClatchy. “We are excited to partner with The Trade Desk on this important step forward to improve programmatic supply chain efficiency and transparency.”

Advance Local – “At Advance Local, we have always supported our journalistic mission by helping advertisers reach engaged and informed local audiences that are invested in the future of the communities we serve,” said Jeff Sutton, VP of Programmatic, Advance Local. “We’ve always believed that a transparent marketplace that maximizes publisher revenue while optimizing ROAS for the advertiser is critical to the future of the open web, and we’re proud to work closely with The Trade Desk in support of this important initiative.”

Nexstar Digital – “Nexstar Digital, the 7^th largest news and information digital property with over 120MM monthly uniques in December 2021 according to Comscore, prides itself on producing premium local and national news content that delivers highly-engaged and valuable audiences with buying power,” said Lori Tavoularis, Chief Revenue Officer, Nexstar Digital. “We are excited to be partnering on OpenPath with The Trade Desk and supporting innovation that drives increased transparency, accountability, and efficiency in the programmatic ecosystem.”

CafeMedia – “The Trade Desk’s OpenPath tool provides a new way for advertisers to support quality content creators on the open web, including the 3,500 independent publishers we represent,” said Paul Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer, CafeMedia. “OpenPath will push digital advertising towards a more sustainable and transparent ecosystem where advertisers can get exceptional performance all while funding great content.”

The Trade Desk has communicated to advertising technology partners that it plans to depart from Google’s Open Bidding platform by April 15, 2022. The Trade Desk will continue to buy through Google’s Ad Exchange.

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