Travis Lusk

2026: The Trillion-Dollar Algorithmic Era Over the past few weeks, I've been thinking about "focus" for 2026. What do I want to focus ADLINGO on next year? What deserves more attention and coverage, and what deserves less? What tech deserves ...

Certain media metrics are dead to me. Others are earning my regained focus. This and more for 2026. www.adlingo.org/2026-trillio...

The most profitable agencies of 2026 will be 3-person teams working from coffee shops. I call it the "Atomic Agency." More at adlingo.org/atomic
#agenticads #adcp #media

AI on Stage, Humans in the Lobby: The 2026 Conference Opportunity I've spent the last few days engaged in my own career search, but I also took the time to see if any of the Q1 conferences have something to help this crowd. Specifically, I looked at CES, IAB ALM, Ma...

Let's not let the talent that built and powered our industry completely evaporate. We have the venues and the spaces to do better. www.adlingo.org/robots-on-st...

Roblox is a problem — but it’s a symptom of something worse What is the role of tech journalism in a world where CEOs no longer feel shame?

Replace "on Roblox" in the following sentence...

"at least two dozen people in the [US] have been arrested and accused of abducting or abusing victims they met on Roblox..."

...with "at Magic Kingdom" and there would have been protests in the streets by now.

www.platformer.news/roblox-ceo-i...

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ARTF + AdCP: What advertisers need to know The ad tech world loves a standards war, and for those of us in the tech trenches, the last thing we need is another one. Two AI ads standards were publicly released within a few weeks of each other, ...

For the tech-curious...
#adcp #artf

www.adlingo.org/artf-adcp-wh...

What is AdCP? The bots are back, but this time they work for us.

Heard of AdCP? Here's what you need to know. #adcp www.adlingo.org/what-is-adcp/

I'm sure it has nothing to do with Nexstar's bid to acquire Tegna and become the largest local broadcast owner in the country. Absolutely nothing. 🤥

😬

The robots are coming for jobsite lunch trucks!

Retail Media Fees Calculator Estimate the fees paid for retail media campaigns when using vendor provided audience targeting and measurement capabilities.

Link to calculator: www.adlingo.org/retail-media...

The combination of factors, including percentage of spend fees, CPM caps, and minimum spend requirements, can become quite complicated. Or at least for me it did.

So I handed my friend Claude Code a copy of the article and a brief to make me a cost calculator.

Recently, Kathryn Lundstrom from ADWEEK published excerpts from a leaked document that allegedly contained the details of what various Retail Media Networks charge advertisers to access their inventory. The fees include various types of audience targeting, measurement, and more.

Public media dies in 6 weeks Every one of us in commercial media has benefited from PBS and NPR. If we let them die on our watch, we're complicit in destroying the best of what American media can be.

On our watch. This is happening. Right now. While you're reading this. Collectively, we have the resources to stop it. What we should do: www.adlingo.org/pbs-npr-publ...

100%. When I was asked to back to my University, I told the students they needed to study the business end even if the school did not teach it. And even if it was not interesting to them.

Undergrads: Traditional agency career paths are a financial dead end, and what to do instead Agencies spent $1B on AI, fired 15,000 people, and entry-level workers spend 70% of income on rent. Smart marketing students are skipping agencies for brands: 30% higher pay, better hours, and jobs th...

If you are an undergrad (or parent of one) here's my advice against the traditional agency path.

www.adlingo.org/undergrads-t...

Has anyone else blocked the LLM's from scraping their sites with the new Cloudflare tools? Curious if there are any initial learnings.

Substack's Nazi push notifications Substack's algorithm reportedly served swastikas to users' phones this week, and I'm feeling pretty good about jumping ship months ago

Substack's Nazi push notifications www.adlingo.org/substack-naz...

Ghost lets you seamlessly migrate your PAID (and free) subscribers over to their platform. You just use the same Stripe account that you used on Substack. No downtime for subscribers. No changes in billing. Pretty straightforward.

Substack promotes a Nazi The company has long wanted to be seen as neutral infrastructure — this week, we saw why that’s a fantasy

Deleted my Substack account and all my subscriptions. Sorry to lose the insights of all the writers I enjoy on there, but there's no excuse to not move your publication to a different, better platform at this point. www.platformer.news/substack-naz...

Let’s all try to help Substack live up to its new valuation The company's new unicorn status has already led its founders to reverse their position on advertising. What other compromises are they prepared to make?

Great breakdown of Substack's current business. I too took ADLINGO off Substack for the same reasons as Casey. www.platformer.news/substack-ser...

Ahhhh there it is.

#1 show in the time slot, and showed slight increased viewership YoY.

"This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop..." Oh I bet it was. 😉 👍 Sure.

(2/2)

Ok, hear me out about Colbert.

- October 2024 - Trump sues CBS/Paramount for $10 billion.
- February 2025 - Raises the demand to $20 billion.
- July 2025 - Settles for $16 million.

$20 billion down to $16 million. Curious. 🤔

July 2025 - Colbert and The Late Show announce cancellation.

(1/2)

[...checks if domain is still available.]

The days of browsing without AI mediation are over Does Perplexity's Comet browser signal the future of AI-powered advertising? While scale is limited today, the conceptual disruption is massive. Plus, Apple's rumored acquisition interest makes it wor...

The days of browsing without AI mediation are over www.adlingo.org/the-days-of-...

Did the FTC just hand agencies the perfect excuse? What the FTC designed as protection for news publishers could become their financial ruin. The documentation burdens and compliance risks associated with the consent order create perverse incentives f...

This will either be a spectacular self own, or was designed to starve news by design.

Did the FTC just hand agencies the perfect excuse? www.adlingo.org/did-the-ftc-...

stratechery.com/2025/an-inte...

POSSIBLE Myths In a breakout session at POSSIBLE 2025 in Miami Beach yesterday, eMarketer's CEO Matthias Braun, and a panel of his analysts challenged three pervasive myths in our industry.

www.adlingo.org/possible-myt...
#possible2025

See you Sunday in Miami #possible #miami2025