How the New York Post optimized its supply path and increased fill rates by 8.6x

The New York Post is making the most of a tough journalism environment by adopting modern tools to power its business.

The oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the U.S., founded in 1801, saw a 97% increase in programmatic revenue and an 8.6x lift in fill-rate one year after integrating OpenPath, a supply path optimization (SPO) tool developed by The Trade Desk.

Amanda Gomez, the Post’s SVP of revenue operations and ad technology, said the shift helped “to simplify our connection to advertisers to help fill our ad spots more efficiently and transparently.” By minimizing intermediaries, the newspaper gained greater control over pricing its inventory and partner relationships.

The Post joins a growing list of global journalistic publishers, including The Guardian, Reuters, The Washington Post, Condé Nast and the Los Angeles Times, that have adopted OpenPath.

Controlling their future businesses

These developments come as journalism is under growing pressure to increase ad revenue and control the advertising process as more consumers shift to digital consumption. In the U.S., the vast majority of consumers now get their news from digital devices, compared to traditional print, TV or radio sources, according to Pew Research. But this digital transformation has also disrupted traditional advertising models.

Stephanie Layser, a former ad executive at the New York Post who testified during Google’s ad tech antitrust trial, underscored a key point: When publishers lose control over their ad decisioning, they can be taken advantage of.

Justin Wohl, VP of strategy at Aditude, echoed similar concerns, stressing that it’s critical for publishers to own their own pipes and have full visibility into every path through which they sell their inventory. Without that control, he warned, they risk diluting their supply and eroding its value.

“By putting [their supply] through all of these different paths and having it be duplicated and represented multiple times over to the buy side, [publishers] lost the chance to tell the buyer, no, take me seriously, this impression matters, this is a valuable product,” Wohl tells The Current.

A recent report from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) found that advertisers are working with an average of 14 supply-side platforms (SSPs), with some using as many as 80, up from a high of 53 in 2023.

Moving away from cheap reach

The study also shows momentum away from cheap reach toward quality. Ad spending on made-for-advertising (MFA) websites dropped from 15% in 2023 to an average of 6% per year. Plus, 59% of marketers in the study spend 1% or less on MFA websites.

Brand safety concerns have plagued news publishers for years, even as studies show those perceptions to be unfounded. Publishers like the Post, which attracts 80 million unique visitors a month, are working to reassure brands that advertising around high-quality news is safe.

“News is a powerful place to reach curious, engaged audiences that ultimately create outcomes for business,” The New York Times’ global chief advertising officer, Joy Robins, said onstage at The Trade Desk’s FWD25 event.

Furthermore, recent research from Stagwell underscores the vital role news plays in consumers’ lives and that consumer perceptions of advertising against news remain as positive as other forms of content.

Reimagining the supply chain

The real value of news publishers can only be realized through a transparent, well-functioning supply chain, according to Mike O’Sullivan, who co-founded Sincera (now part of The Trade Desk).

“Understanding and valuing a publisher’s environment and the context in which ad opportunities exist is only possible on the open internet,” O’Sullivan said. “There are still ads on the walled gardens. You just know nothing about this.”

He’s not the only one who wants to improve the supply chain. John Shankman, chief strategy officer at Aditude, believes eroding trust in walled gardens is leading advertisers to demand greater transparency and accountability, setting up the industry with a unique moment to make things work better.

“Reimagining the digital ad supply chain isn’t just about efficiency,” Shankman tells The Current. “It’s about fostering innovation, transparency and trust in an industry that has long struggled with all three.”

The Current is owned and operated by The Trade Desk Inc.