A Trillion-Dollar Disconnect
The global digital advertising market is worth US$1 trillion, yet news publishers are capturing only a fraction of that bounty. According to the latest World Press Trends report, publishers secure just $15.7 billion of that total. In the United States, the scale of the missed opportunity is stark: the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report: Full Year 2025 shows digital advertising revenue hit nearly $300 billion.
The Rise of Publisher Alliances
To bridge this divide, media companies are banding together. Alliances like Ozone and France’s 366 are aggregating inventory to challenge the dominance of technology platforms. Ozone, established in 2018 by News UK, the Guardian, Telegraph Media Group, and Reach plc, was designed to counter an ecosystem that systematically extracts value from the industry.
Danny Spears, Chief Operating Officer of Ozone, says the challenge is too vast for any single publisher to tackle alone. “The economic question is always whether we will retain that value or whether instead it will end up in the pockets of others,” Spears told participants at the World News Media Congress.
Scaling Journalism for Marketers
Ozone has expanded well beyond its UK roots, with the United States now serving as its largest market. The alliance now manages relationships with 75 global media companies, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the BBC, People Inc., Deutsche Welle, and Warner Bros. The goal is simple: make it easier for marketers to buy space in trusted journalism while keeping first-party audience data under publisher control.
Testing New Ground with Ozone Labs
To confront industry hurdles, the group launched Ozone Labs. This independent research arm focuses on issues deemed too consequential to ignore. Through experiments and “hack days” with marketers and publishers, the lab aims to share findings that help the broader industry address information asymmetry.
Spears believes the sector is at a “crossroads moment.” Without decisive action from business leaders, he warns, the industry’s future could be permanently altered.
Reclaiming Value in a Fragmented Market
The shift toward collective action is a direct response to a landscape that has long favored large technology intermediaries. By pooling data and inventory, publishers are building a scalable alternative to the status quo.
