Simpler supply paths drove gains for advertisers and publishers in 2025
Many advertisers and publishers saw more bang for their buck in 2025.
A recent report from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) found that the share of ad spend reaching publishers climbed to 47%, an 11% jump since 2023. That equates to a staggering $13.6 billion unlocked.
The gains reflect a broader push across the ad ecosystem to simplify the supply chain, cut out unnecessary intermediaries and create direct paths between buyers and sellers. That effort is paying off, as clearer supply paths can make it easier for advertisers and publishers alike to understand where value is created — and where it isn’t.
And a big driver in that push is OpenPath, The Trade Desk’s solution that connects advertisers directly to premium publishers, streamlining the programmatic supply chain. Several publishers reported significant gains after adopting the approach.
The Arena Group — which owns Men’s Journal, Parade and TheStreet — saw dramatic results: a 400% higher fill-rate across programmatic web and online video, alongside a 79% boost in revenue.
Hearst reported a 400% lift in inventory fill-rate, with programmatic online video revenue climbing by 23%. The New York Post saw a 97% increase in programmatic revenue and an 860% lift in fill-rate.
Amanda Gomez, the Post’s senior vice president of revenue operations and ad technology, told The Current earlier this year that turning on OpenPath helped “to simplify our connection to advertisers to help fill our ad spots more efficiently and transparently.” By reducing intermediaries, the newspaper gained greater control over pricing its inventory and partner relationships.
Pascal Charpentier, programmatic team lead at Funke Media, one of Germany’s largest newspaper and magazine publishers, echoed that message.
“Complex supply chains and intermediaries were not only limiting our fill-rate and revenue potential — they were also driving up unnecessary fees,” Charpentier said. “We were able to simplify the supply path, reduce intermediary costs and establish a more transparent and effective connection with premium demand.”
As a result, Funke doubled its revenue across programmatic display.
At the heart of supply chain reform is transparency. Kamran Asghar, global CEO and co-founder of independent agency Crossmedia, told The Current earlier this year that every marketer should have “full media operational efficiency into what’s happening in their ecosystem.” That includes knowing what they’re paying for and where their ad dollars are going.
Anything else, Asghar argues, is unacceptable. Too often, the murkiness within the industry wins out, adding confusion, complexity and cost.
“You have to look no further than the walled gardens to understand that they’re in the best interests of serving themselves,” Asghar said. “I’ve never met somebody at Google or Meta or now Amazon who didn’t think that they could solve all of their marketers’ problems. And the world just doesn’t work that way.”
There are signs that ad tech is beginning to clean itself up. Federal judges ruled this year that Google held a monopoly in search and ad tech in two separate trials. And ad spend on made-for-advertising websites dropped to under half a percent in the ANA report, a record low.
Meanwhile, long-standing tensions between the buy side and the sell side may be overstated, according to PubMatic Chief Revenue Officer Kyle Dozeman. The Trade Desk and PubMatic recently announced a partnership to better scale commitment deals.
“The ‘buy side versus sell side’ framing is becoming increasingly archaic and a distraction from solving real problems,” Dozeman recently told The Current.
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