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There’s no such factor as a summer time slowdown. Whereas members of the media and advertising industries might have tried to take a break from the each day grind, the information cycle by no means let up.
From Paramount’s Skydance Media sale and Omnicom-IPG’s merger milestone to a brand new CEO at WPP and contemporary competitors for Google, the previous few months have been fairly momentous. But additionally extremely messy. Once more, see the scenario at Paramount and the strain on Google. And that’s to not point out the topsy-turvy tariff-related state of affairs.
However because the summer time fades to fall, the occasions that transpired this season have set the circumstances for what’s prone to be an much more eventful — to make use of a euphemism — finish to the 12 months. To that finish, Digiday managing editor Sara Jerde joined Digiday Podcast hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson to recap the tales of the summer time and analyze what they portend for the remainder of 2025 and past.
“It’s been chaos, however the good type of chaos the place there’s a whole lot of attention-grabbing information to dissect,” mentioned Jerde. She added, “We look ahead to having slower days and to benefit from the seashore or the good sunsets, however that’s probably not the place we discovered ourselves this summer time. It’s undoubtedly not been a gradual one.”
The blurred line between streaming and the normal TV bundle
Peterson: “Streaming providers are simply the extension of cable now. We have now these TV community firms eliminating their cable community companies and type of recreating them, however with streaming providers now.”
An inflection level for publishers and AI firms
Jerde: “There are too many views and differing views on methods to use AI and methods to companion with these AI firms for publishers to really get their shit collectively and convey about change.”
Everybody’s coming for Google’s crown
McCoy: “Does anyone like a Perplexity, or among the smaller AI gamers, have the infrastructure to take care of what Google has? You go the baton to anyone who can’t catch it. Now what?”
That lengthy, looming shadow of tariffs
Peterson: “I don’t assume we’ve actually seen a direct influence from these tariffs simply but. We’ve seen costs go up and there’s been a whole lot of concern from advertisers, however all of that felt extra preemptive.”
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