News Corp is investing heavily in building its own in-house ad tech capabilities rather than relying solely on external partners for several key reasons: 1) Having internal experts allows News Corp to optimize its header bidding setup and tech stack in real-time to keep control and maximize revenue while balancing page speed and user experience. 2) Building proprietary identity solutions like News IQ Network allows News Corp to better understand user behavior and connections across its properties to improve audience targeting and insights. 3) Developing in-house analytics capabilities provides more comprehensive data and visibility into pricing and audience performance than external partners to optimize deals and inform future programmatic buys. While partnerships are useful, News Corp believes internal capabilities are important for

1. Build vs. Buy
Why News Corp is Investing so much into its In-House Ad Tech
November 2019
Stephanie Layser

3. Has one of your partners ever
kept something from you,
omitted the truth, or
intentionally explained
technology in a way that left
out important functionality?
INCENTIVES

4. Header
Analytics
Identity

5. Header

6. Supply Paths Matter
Being able to evaluate all the
supply paths using the same
data is crucial to understanding
how buyers see and access
your inventory.
Optimizing your header bidding
setup helps publishers keep
control of their tech stack.

7. Commercial Engineering
Goal
● Revenue, Page Speed, Optimal user experience
● Healthy balance for your current business needs
Internal Experts
● Optimizations in real time
● Endless customization

8. Open Source, Community Based
Join

9. Analytics

10. Log Level
Data
If they can’t give you your logs, they can’t
claim transparency

11. Combining Data
SSP
Header
Analytics
Ad serverIdentifier
RESOURCES
ENGINEERING
Data Cleaning
Normalizing and aligning
various data sources
AD OPS
Key Value Implementation
Making sure that key values for
tracking and activations are in
order
DATA ANALYST
Visualization
Creating digestible insights from
the main data set
PROJECT LEAD
Organize
Keep project on track and
resources accountable

12. Deal ID Pricing Optimization
In a header-bidding environment, in order to deeply analyze
performance across the entirety of the stack, you need to look at a
full set of data to find win-rate within the SSP and within your ad
server
Total Bids
Lost in SSPLost in Header BiddingImpressions Rendered
Who outbid? At what
price-point?
Who outbid? At what
price-point?

13. Incremental Revenue
Publishers yield optimization strategy can be based off of incremental revenue driven.
By SSPs, by deals, by direct deals, by subscription revenue and lead generation revenue.

14. Incremental Revenue

15. Identity

16. Identity
News IQ Network
Realtor App
NYPost.com
WSJ.com
Our users are
increasingly reading
our content across
multiple sites,
geographies, platforms
and ecosystems. The
News ID system helps
us make sense of the
connections using
deterministic rules and
machine learning.

17. Applications for
Advertisers

18. Identity: 1P Audiences to Target Across the Whole Web
Execute Across
News Corp
Properties Via
Private Marketplace
or Managed Service
Expansive list
of 1P
audiences
Tech
Interest
Sports
Fans
New
Movers
Parents Travelers
Arts & Culture
Fans
Finance
Interest
Shoppers
Lifestage
Entertainment

19. Analytics: Pre and Post Bid Pricing & Audience Insights
Deal ID insights mean better informed programmatic buys
Audience: Learn which NewsIQ 1P
audiences overlap with the consumers
engaging with their campaign
Pricing: Understand why their bid lost,
and what to bid in the future for X
number of impressions

20. While ad tech partnerships
can help you drive revenue,
its important to always keep
in mind your long-term
growth, and if you haven’t see
in it in market, build it!
Q&A