MAM
PubMatic Partners with Internews to enable ad investment in quality journalism on a global scale
Mumbai: PubMatic (Nasdaq: PUBM), an independent technology company delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future, has today announced a partnership with Internews, an international non-profit supporting independent media in over 100 countries. The partnership makes advertising across responsible content accessible on a global scale, allowing brands to embrace news-encompassing marketing strategies that produce social impact, and economic returns and enable them to reach and gain affinity with more customers.
The partnership is underpinned by Internews’ Ads for News Initiative, which employs in-country media experts to vet local news websites, ensuring the quality of supply. This non-profit work is conducted globally, using extensive evaluation criteria including the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) brand safety and suitability standards.
Via PubMatic, the quality news sites and domains vetted by Ads for News, can be accessed directly through a local market inclusion list, private marketplaces (PMPs) or a package of inventory against a biddable price.
Leveraging leading-edge technologies from both companies, the collaboration will include integration with the upcoming Internews-led Media Viability Accelerator initiative, enabling PubMatic to access a wealth of insights and pull curated lists of trusted media into its own systems according to specific content thematics such as gender, environment and health news and information.
This partnership aims to instil confidence in buying responsible news, making it easier for advertisers to buy media against content quality criteria and credible news sources to support quality journalism. With over 14,000 vetted, quality online news publishers, in 54 international markets, the initiative’s scale of supply is unmatched in the industry.
“A thriving, open internet must be based upon an ecosystem that is built to deliver positive outcomes for everyone. PubMatic is committed to both responsible operations and supporting responsible media, “said Eric Bozinny, Senior Director, Marketplace Quality at PubMatic. “Quality journalism is vital to the health and well-being of our society – more so today than ever. Top tier brands have made a strong commitment towards supporting credible news sources via their advertising activities, but they must be able to do so with the utmost confidence that their budgets are going toward quality, brand-safe outlets and coverage.”
Internews’ Chris Hajecki, Director of Ads for News, said “Brands and their agency partners are investing more responsibly and evolving their old ways of working. One of these evolutions is towards the inclusion of quality journalism in media planning— particularly as more brand safety assurances are now on offer. Supporting quality journalism is a pillar of responsible ad investing and results in more sustainable and transparent supply chains, higher economic returns for advertisers, and positive impacts on society.”
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
