Publishing Manager Cristina talks to us about her journey to date, attitudes towards brand safety today, and the importance of honest journalism in the age of AI-generated content
How did you get started in the publishing world?
I started about 15 years ago. My first job was a sales job for a publisher, and I worked there for two years, learning how they operated, who did what, and so on.
After that, I was picked up by an ad tech company, where my primary role was advertising sales. It was a startup company, and the role required me to connect publishers to run the campaigns. So, it was a mixed role between managing campaigns and speaking to publishers, selling to publishers, recruiting publishers, and so on.
When I joined SmartFrame, I started in a publisher sales role, but it’s also been a fairly mixed position between client success and sales. So, in one way or another, I’ve always been involved with publishers.
What has been the biggest change you’ve witnessed during that time?
I think this industry changes very quickly. It was very basic when I first started in that publishers would have advertising spots and they would sell them. When I first sold to publishers, it would be for the print edition. The digital side of things was essentially only sold as added value – some banners on their site, for example. So, print was the focus, and digital was secondary.
And then the digital space grew as interest grew, and technologies grew in the space too. And the more these grew – such as by adding SSPs, DSPs, data management platforms, and so on – it shifted.
There was a period when it was very data-driven. Previously, publishers held control of the ad space – especially on digital – and media agencies would go to hundreds of sites to buy the ad positions. But media agencies faced a logistical nightmare creating bespoke banners for each publisher.
When the digitalization of advertising began, media agencies had bespoke formats and publishers had to feed into that. But then publishers started losing control because they had data management platforms, and media agencies would cherry-pick what they wanted from the site.
So, you had data companies and ad tech companies who had control over the budget and how it was spent, whereas before, it was publishers that had control. So, it shifted. But I think with GDPR being more of a focus, and after COVID, the discussion became very much about how to protect users.
Now, the conversation is about having a connection with the buyer, and I’m hearing more and more about being in the right context and creating meaningful connections with users. If someone is reading an article about a car, it makes sense to show them adverts with cars. It may be that a user is not looking to buy a new car, but by reading the article, they might start to question whether they need a new one. And then they may start looking into it. So, brands have started to look at being seen in the right context.
I remember a conversation I had with an automotive client about the best kinds of sites for their ads, and it transpired that baby and parenting sites were working particularly for them. Most people will have a second-hand car as their first car – only a limited number of people buy a new car – and they will only tend to buy a new car when something happens in their life. It could be that they get married, get a new job, or their family grows, and they realize their existing car doesn’t fit their needs. Mums have a huge influence on deciding when to buy a new car – and this specific brand had huge sales of their cars just by targeting families and parenting sites, which they had excluded before.
So, you need the right context. But that has to go beyond keyword targeting, as this can exclude you from relevant articles. For example, let’s say you’re a fashion brand. You may, understandably, want to add the word ‘killer’ to a block list. But then if you think about phrases like killer looks or killer image, you can appreciate why you’d not be seen in the right context.
Another key change is that a lot of sites and publishers are scaling down. The more ad tech partners you have in your waterfall, the more it slows down your sites, which impacts the user experience. Publishers are concerned with becoming sustainable and diminishing their carbon emissions. The more partners you have and the slower your site is, the more carbon emissions there are. So, publishers are thinking, “I’m going to just select a few partners that work for me.”
Do you think attitudes towards brand safety have changed over the last few years? Where is brand safety today?
In the early days, brand safety was not a major consideration. There were sites buying clicks and bot traffic was common. But as digital advertising grew, so did the need for brand safety tools – and brands like DoubleVerify, Moat, and IAS played a significant role in addressing these challenges.
But even though we have these technologies now, a key question around content is: “Yes, this looks safe for the brand, but is it truthful?” A key issue now – especially in the age of AI, but even before – is that you can take an image, edit it, and make it look like something very different from the original. And with that, you can build a story that’s actually not a story.
We have many examples of how AI images have contributed to fake news, and also where real images were taken out of their original context and used elsewhere. A lot of fake news, propaganda, and conspiracy theories can sound very real. So, now it’s a case of understanding how we counteract that – and I think SmartFrame is in a perfect place for that.
Would you say misinformation is the most significant challenge facing publishers right now?
Yes, this is a big challenge, especially with the growth of AI. Editorial teams can easily use images they think are real on their sites. The case of an AI-generated image that appeared to show an explosion near the Pentagon, which had an impact on the stock market, reminds us of how easily people can be fooled.
Personally, I like the imperfections of a real human, which includes their writing. This is the romantic in me! I like the nuances. Yes, you can have perfectly polished writing with AI, but it doesn’t offer the connection with the writer. I hope and pray publishers do not fall into that trap just to cut costs because I think they will lose that connection with humans. I hope journalists don’t forget to be journalists. They need to write the truth, especially with investigative reporting. Authenticity is what keeps us progressing as a society. I don’t think AI can give us that.
Where do you think SmartFrame fits into all this?
I think SmartFrame is in the right time and in the right place right now. Particularly with Content Credentials, we can not only protect photographers – in that we know who took the picture, when and how it was taken, and so on – but also the authenticity of the story. And when publishers use such an image, which is protected and embedded on their site, there’s no risk of someone editing and misusing the image.
For publishers using our content, and embedding it on their sites, they have the assurance of that human verification. So, in terms of protecting authenticity, I think we’re best placed right now.
Longer term, I see SmartFrame doing so much more in safeguarding not just companies and brands but also the elderly, children, and other vulnerable members of society. It’s a massive thing to be able to safeguard these images, and to ensure these images aren’t shared in a non-consensual way.
That is just the first step, but I see this application growing in many other fields. And the education around this isn’t just important for larger publishers, but smaller ones too. We need a new generation of writers and content creators, and the more we start from the ground up, and the more these sites grow, the greater the snowball effect can be.
How do you switch off when you’re not at SmartFrame?
When I’m not at SmartFrame, I focus on my family. We enjoy going out and having adventures together. This is why safeguarding is so important to me; I take pictures all the time but rarely share family images on social media due to safety concerns. I want to ensure our memories aren’t misused.
I enjoy reading and philosophy, though I don’t have as much time for them as I’d like, since the kids occupy much of it. Still, I have my philosophical perspectives on things. I’m not particularly political, but I find it interesting to consider others’ views on life.
I’ve read a couple of books that changed my perspectives on things. One I recently finished was Konstantin Kisin’s An Immigrant’s Love Story to the West. The author lived in communist Russia, where journalists are oppressed. He emphasizes not losing your voice, as it’s essential for building a reality for society.
This is personal for me, as I come from a country that used to be under a communist regime. At school, you are given a book, and you get higher grades if you can reproduce the content within it. I attended university in the UK, and it completely changed my way of seeing education. So, An Immigrant’s Love Story to the West really spoke to me.
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