The Future of Publisher Revenue: Leila Hunn on Curation Fees, Signal Control, and the Open Web

While websites won’t face a “cold-hard death” any time soon, publishers are facing unprecedented challenges as the digital advertising landscape undergoes massive transformation. As Leila Hunn, VP of Display at System One and a 15-year veteran of ad tech, bluntly puts it: “Why are my CPMs lower and lower and lower every year?”

The Curation Problem

One of the most significant issues facing publishers today is what the industry has labeled as “curation” – a term Hunn would gladly eliminate from ad tech jargon.

“The problem with curation is there’s no net new dollar received by the publisher,” Hunn explains. “Sure, it makes life easier for the buy side, especially when there’s signal loss, but what is the publisher getting out of it?”

What’s marketed as a value-add service that helps organize inventory for buyers is often just another layer extracting value from publishers. Curation fees are frequently non-transparent, with publishers having little visibility into what percentage is being taken from their revenue.

“If it is a sell-side service… how do I not understand what I’m paying for?” Hunn questions.

The Power of Price Control

Hunn advocates strongly for publishers to implement price control mechanisms to combat these issues. “My position based on what’s available right now is price control, which is incredibly difficult because of unified flooring,” she notes.

Publishers should at minimum have transparency around what curators are charging. Without this information, they cannot make informed decisions about their inventory pricing or negotiate equitable deals.

“We should at the very least have transparency by curator – what they’re charging,” Hunn insists.

The Signal Challenge

As third-party cookies face extinction, publishers are being urged to develop sell-side signals – data points about their users and content that can help advertisers make buying decisions. However, there’s significant confusion about how to implement these signals effectively.

“There is no standard framework. The best we have is the IAB taxonomy, which I’ve been really critical about because it is not a taxonomy that appeals to marketing goals,” Hunn explains.

The most skilled identifier in use today remains the third-party cookie. Until it’s fully eliminated, Hunn believes “we’re not going to see a new signal evolve or emerge as the new champion.”

For mid-market publishers without large technical teams, this presents an enormous challenge. Many are outsourcing their signal strategies and finding themselves “at the mercy of the services and what they do within the industry and their fee structures.”

AI and the Future of the Open Web

When asked whether the open web will survive in an AI-dominated future, Hunn offers a nuanced perspective.

“I don’t think websites are going to die a cold-hard death because there’s always opportunity to create new content. I think this is like the rise of the mid-market and long tail,” she suggests.

While traffic patterns will change dramatically as AI becomes the front end for consumer searches, Hunn sees opportunity in the evolution: “I think we’re going to see like an actual Renaissance era where people get more rooted in experiential themes and more rooted in discourse and connection, even if it’s digital.”

However, she acknowledges the challenges, particularly as organic traffic diminishes and platforms push toward pay-to-play models: “It’s going to be a pay-to-play world, there is no doubt about that. Organic direct or even just organic search – gone. Just consider that that is going to compress.”

Who Does the Supply Chain Serve?

In a revealing analysis of ad tech’s incentive structures, Hunn points out that supply-side platforms (SSPs) often don’t actually serve publishers’ best interests.

“An SSP makes more money providing or delivering lower CPMs to publishers by attracting more scale into their SSP,” she explains. “I did the modeling against this recently, and it’s like you know as a business theoretically I can make 30% more by lowering CPM by 15%, but I’ll only make 10% more if I drive 15% lift for my publisher base.”

This fundamental misalignment means SSPs are incentivized to bring publishers lower CPMs while attracting more overall demand – directly conflicting with publishers’ goal of maximizing revenue.

Maintaining Independence

Despite these challenges, Hunn believes publishers still hold significant power: “Power will come with user engagement. As long as publishers continue to engage with their audiences, there will be people who want to put their ads in front of those people.”

She advises publishers to focus on preserving relationships with users and creating engaging experiences – “it doesn’t have to be pristine, it just has to be engaging” – while also exploring opportunities to pool resources with other publishers.

“The more we can recognize where we have value and pull it together, price control the heck out of it – I think that’s the most important thing we have to do,” Hunn concludes.

As the industry faces these evolving challenges, Hunn’s transparent approach to discussing often-obscured industry dynamics offers publishers valuable insights for navigating an increasingly complex landscape. Her parting wisdom? “The best thing we can do in life is change our mind because it means we got more information, we evolved our thinking… changing your mind is a beautiful thing.”